Robert Morein wrote:

"ric" wrote in message ...

Robert Morein wrote:


There really isn't.
It is a common misconception that a station is not received due to
inadequate signal strength. This is actually quite rare.

This appears to be the case here, though. This is a college station,
low in frequency (88.3 MHz), and only broadcasting at 2K watts about
40 miles to my south. The signal is very steady, but weak. Static
can be 99% eliminated by going into mono mode.

Are you familiar with the FM2G-C? It is being strongly considered.

http://www.fanfare.com/fm-2g-c.html


This is an omnidirectional antenna, which means it will be very susceptible
to multipath. The fact that it is cut for the educational band gives it a
little more gain, but, as I said, gain is seldom the problem. The problem is
phase cancellation caused by reception of a signal that is reflected by two
or more different paths. This causes the signal to actually cancel 100% at
certain frequencies. More gain on nothing does not result in something. The
solution is a directional antenna, which attenuates all but one of the
reception paths, eliminating the phase cancellation.

A cheap way is also to use a pair of "rabbit ears". The two antennas
give a lot of interference to be sure, but they can be aimed to make it
pretty directional(note - it works best if the weaker one is a lot
shorter than the main one). It's not great, but it's effective
enough considering the nearly zero cost.