Professional FM tuner

A

andrew gissing

Sophomore
Jan 11, 2011
240
0
0
Perth Western Australia
www.stylusra.com.au
Hi,

We've got an event coming up later in the year. Client has requested an analogue receiver not digital but, we might be able to persuade them.

The gig is receiving a radio station broadcast (they are the client) and putting that through a PA in open air (tuner will be open air as well)

What i'd really like is a tuner with XLR outputs and an aerial like a helical or other such professional antennae which would work with FM. I'm out of my depth talking aerials so may have wrong terms there.

The band i'm looking for is around 90-100 mhz I think. Stations advertise as 92.9, 94.5, 96.1, 100FM etc.

Sole reason for this is to try and get the best rock solid connection we can.

Can anyone recommend any gear ?


Andrew
 
Re: Professional FM tuner

andrew gissing said:
Hi,

We've got an event coming up later in the year. Client has requested an analogue receiver not digital but, we might be able to persuade them.

The gig is receiving a radio station broadcast (they are the client) and putting that through a PA in open air (tuner will be open air as well)

What i'd really like is a tuner with XLR outputs and an aerial like a helical or other such professional antennae which would work with FM. I'm out of my depth talking aerials so may have wrong terms there.

The band i'm looking for is around 90-100 mhz I think. Stations advertise as 92.9, 94.5, 96.1, 100FM etc.

Sole reason for this is to try and get the best rock solid connection we can.

Can anyone recommend any gear ?


Andrew
Click to expand...

Most professional grade tuners should be fine, the most important thing is that you have a decent antenna (there are thousands of different makes/models online) and that you have good proximity to the transmitter of the station you wish to receive.

The website Radio-Locator will show you all of the radio stations in a given area and even a map of their signal strength from which you can determine your relative location. "Local" coverage area is generally the area in which a "consumer/household" receiver will receive the station inside a building with a small antenna. The "Distant" coverage area generally the area in which outdoor and car radio receptions is "acceptable." The "Fringe" area is an area which in theory you should be able to still receive the station, but depends on several factors such as weather.

Hope this helps,

BTW I am a broadcast engineer for four radio stations
 
Re: Professional FM tuner

I've had good luck with Roll's RS80 tuner to monitor a radio broadcast.

It's got a F connector for the antenna input so you can select the appropriate antenna. It ships with a simple wire.

Philip
 
Re: Professional FM tuner

If you can find one, the discontinued Sony XDR-F1HD tuner is very cheap, and probably good enough for your application.

Only problem is these were selling new for $99 just a couple of years ago, now I'm seeing them used for twice that on eBay.
 
Re: Professional FM tuner

I have a little Sony XDR-F1HD tuner and it's the best tuner that I own. But it does have one big problem for pro A/V, it has no battery back-up, so if the power goes down for more than a few minutes, it forgets everything and reprogramming it is slow. So you also need a UPS or mod it and add a battery.
 
Re: Professional FM tuner

Does the radio station stream their broadcast audio online?

There will be significant latency if you go this way, so it would not be good if they are doing "Live" events and just want you to turn up the radio... but rather than gearing up for picking up an OTA broadcast, plugging a computer into your PA system shouldn't be too big of a deal.
 
Top Bottom