My New (Used) FM tuner

[omishra]

One big news to me. I was never expecting this. Though I never intended in FM DX'ing it is happening. I am clearly getting FM 100MHz from Ahmadnagar and little weak Mumbai 92.7MHz big FM in morning time.

 

[Hiten]

Great acquisition OM.

One big news to me. I was never expecting this. Though I never intended in FM DX'ing it is happening. I am clearly getting FM 100MHz from Ahmadnagar and little weak Mumbai 92.7MHz big FM in morning time.

DXing - remind me of SINPO test of shortwave stations. (Signal, noise, interference, power, overall) One would submit the reception results (by giving numbers 1 to 5) to the radio stations. They would send some literature/stickers and stuff. Radio Nederland sent me some nice shortwave antenna booklets. But no longer have them.
Best regards.

 

[apk]

Thanks apk! Get it from me whenever you visit here next time.

Sure Om. Thanks for the offer! Would also love to see and hear the changes to your setup (the last time I visited was almost 2 years ago!)

Sadly, no Pune trips in the horizon right now. Will let you know incase anything turns up.

Thanks,
APK.

 

[audio_passionate]

Thank you very much Mishra ji for your quick response regarding FM antennae help. This will do a great job for me.

 

[omishra]

One big news to me. I was never expecting this. Though I never intended in FM DX'ing it is happening. I am clearly getting FM 100MHz from Ahmadnagar and little weak Mumbai 92.7MHz big FM in morning time.

Update -
100MHz (Ahmednagar) is available clean till sunrise + 30 minutes
92.7MHz (this is Solapur & not Mumbai) is available till 8:00AM
103.7MHz (Satara) is available for complete transmission, noisefree & clean only from sunset to sunrise. Though my antenna is pointed exactly 90 deg from direction of Satara, this is surprise to me.

 

[reubensm]

Great acquisition OM.

DXing - remind me of SINPO test of shortwave stations. (Signal, noise, interference, power, overall) One would submit the reception results (by giving numbers 1 to 5) to the radio stations. They would send some literature/stickers and stuff. Radio Nederland sent me some nice shortwave antenna booklets. But no longer have them.
Best regards.

I used to be into SW Dxing myself and had a collection of QSL cards, don't know what happened to them. It was a fun hobby back in the early to mid 1980s. RF interference was minimal and one had to deal only with electrical interference. I did receive an antenna booklet from Radio Netherlands and a SW radio from Radio Deutchwelle. Infact Radio Deutchwelle even send me some German Language starter kits for me to study German and listen to their German service. Had great fun listening to Srilanka Broadcasting Corp's english service in the mornings and late evenings.

 

[reubensm]

Update -
100MHz (Ahmednagar) is available clean till sunrise + 30 minutes
92.7MHz (this is Solapur & not Mumbai) is available till 8:00AM
103.7MHz (Satara) is available for complete transmission, noisefree & clean only from sunset to sunrise. Though my antenna is pointed exactly 90 deg from direction of Satara, this is surprise to me.

Have a quick question, i receive some week signals from srilanka FM stations and moderate signals from Tirunelveli FM stations at home. I use a NAD 402 tuner with a 2 ft long piece of ordinary flex-wire connected to the line pin of the antenna socket. Dug into my garrage yesterday and located an old folded dipole (from our old TV antenna). Was wondering if I could build an antenna for FM reception. Don't have a long folded dipole so was wondering if the approach (in diagram B) will work. Plan to use 75 ohm co-ax cable, but also have the 300 ohm tv ribbon cable available. I am sure I'd need a balun if I'm using the 75 ohm cable. Kindly comment. Thanks.

 

[reubensm]

with reference to the antenna/balun design and photographs:

Nice design, some gurus of TV Dxing back in the 1970s used to swear that electrically isolating the elements (directors, reflector and dipole) from the mounting beam produced better results. In your view, is this the case?

 

[omishra]

Have a quick question, i receive some week signals from srilanka FM stations and moderate signals from Tirunelveli FM stations at home. I use a NAD 402 tuner with a 2 ft long piece of ordinary flex-wire connected to the line pin of the antenna socket. Dug into my garrage yesterday and located an old folded dipole (from our old TV antenna). Was wondering if I could build an antenna for FM reception. Don't have a long folded dipole so was wondering if the approach (in diagram B) will work. Plan to use 75 ohm co-ax cable, but also have the 300 ohm tv ribbon cable available. I am sure I'd need a balun if I'm using the 75 ohm cable. Kindly comment. Thanks.

Hi rubensm, I could not read those pictures, please provide link to some hi-res pics. Also I could not understand that sketch 'B'. Please explain a little bit. But TV antenna does not help much for FM remote stations.

with reference to the antenna/balun design and photographs:

Nice design, some gurus of TV Dxing back in the 1970s used to swear that electrically isolating the elements (directors, reflector and dipole) from the mounting beam produced better results. In your view, is this the case?

That wooden mast is 1.25"X1.25" cross section 75" long piece from teak wood. After all drilling I soaked it into wood primer and 2 coats of oil paint. IMO that electrical isolation is helping me out there.

 

[reubensm]

Hi rubensm, I could not read those pictures, please provide link to some hi-res pics. Also I could not understand that sketch 'B'. Please explain a little bit. But TV antenna does not help much for FM remote stations.



That wooden mast is 1.25"X1.25" cross section 75" long piece from teak wood. After all drilling I soaked it into wood primer and 2 coats of oil paint. IMO that electrical isolation is helping me out there.

Actually, let me explain, I found a folded dipole, 30 inches long and was wondering, instead of going through the pain of bending a new 12 foot, 1/2 inch aluminium pipe for a large dipole, i could:

1) cut off the corners of this folded dipole and extend the length
2) add two horizontal elements to the existing dipole (as explained in illustration B). Back in the 1980s, I have seen some designs with double dipole (one under the other) and was wondering if this arrangement could be used

Also, what are your views on the vertical yagi vs the horizontal yagi for FM?

On the isolation piece, now it is clear. Thanks for this.

 

[omishra]

1) cut off the corners of this folded dipole and extend the length

That would work, folded dipole can have joints. Only dimensions matter.

2) add two horizontal elements to the existing dipole (as explained in illustration B). Back in the 1980s, I have seen some designs with double dipole (one under the other) and was wondering if this arrangement could be used

That makes it wide band by adding half wave dipole. less directional and less gain. It would help to receive FM. Though I am not sure correct impedance and connection for that arrangement.

Also, what are your views on the vertical yagi vs the horizontal yagi for FM?

This may help you

In short, what we receive is horizontal polarized signal and vertical could help only to avoid multipath signal.

 

[jsbhavsar]

Total how many FM stations being received on the FM Tuner with Yagi?

 

[omishra]

Total how many FM stations being received on the FM Tuner with Yagi?

We have local 5 FM stations in Pune,
+ 1 from Pune University, this is weak in handheld radio
+ 1 Aurangabad
+ 1 Ahmadnagar
+ 1 Satara
And in rainy season Kolhapur too.

 

[reubensm]

Hello Om, I was looking up this article today and curious how you got the dipole bent into shape. How did you pull that off?

 

[omishra]

Hello Om, I was looking up this article today and curious how you got the dipole bent into shape. How did you pull that off?

I filled that pipe with rangoli (fine sand will also do). Closed both ends with cotton. Then I used 1/2" GI pipe to put slow strokes and bend it. Each corner took good 15 mintues patient work. Later removed that filling. That filling saves it from caving in/denting of pipe inside.

 

[reubensm]

That's great work.

I thought you used a tool like this one:

 

[omishra]

That's great work.

I thought you used a tool like this one:

Actually I wished to buy this tool, even one DIY effort was tried with wooden planks. But I felt it was done with patience. If this some cheaper then I can make all sorts of yagis.

 

[vktarun]

Hello Om, I was looking up this article today and curious how you got the dipole bent into shape. How did you pull that off?

Hi ,

We can use the spring generally available at Refrigeration store , which is used by them to bend the hollow copper pipe.
This comes cheap,

Regards,

Vipin.

 

[reubensm]

Hi ,

We can use the spring generally available at Refrigeration store , which is used by them to bend the hollow copper pipe.
This comes cheap,

Regards,

Vipin.

Can you share more info on this, I am hearing this for the very first time

 

[vktarun]

https://www.indiamart.com/proddetail/copper-tube-spring-bender-11155209030.html

Hi,

Please follow the link

Regards.

Vipin