OT: Broadcast FM radio reception

P

Philip Roberts

Sophomore
Jan 12, 2011
135
0
16
Southwest Michigan
Yes, I'm one of those guys who still listens to broadcast FM radio.

I live about 1 miles from a 50kW FM station at 90.7 MHz but of course this isn't the one I want to listen to. I have a Boston radio with a detachable antenna. I'm currently using an adjustable 1/4 wave but not surprisingly it's quite sensitive to where I stand so I'm looking to what other options exist.

I normally listen to this station:
88.1 MHz, Rx level ~-50 dBm, ~150 degrees away from the close station

If I can i'd also like to get:
91.5 MHz, RX level ~-80 dBm ~20 degrees away from the close station.

RF levels are what FMFool calculates. The close stations come in at ~+4dBm

If possible I'd rather stay with an indoor antenna but I could do an out door antenna up to around 40 AGL, FMFool reports a 4dB signal increase for 88.1 and no substantial change for 91.5 going to 40 AGL.

What kind(s) of antenna should I be looking at? With the local station so close should I consider some sort of notch filter?

Thanks

Philip
 
Re: OT: Broadcast FM radio reception

From what I know if you want to pick up far away stations you would be best with an highly directional externally mounted multi-element yagi.
The problem here is that due the angle between the two stations, it would be more advisable to try a single full-wave dipole with a RF screen behind it in the direction of the unwanted local transmitter and see if that is any better although, it may cause problems as the local 50kw station might swamp the receiver.

A notch filter will not be much use as the local station is so close in terms of frequency to the distant station that you want to receive to be able to effectively filter it out.
 
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