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Previously, I touched briefly on some of the ways you can go about improving your
AM reception. I received several e-mails in response to that article,
and one of the prevailing themes in those e-mails was how one could
improve FM reception as well. In this article, I'll offer some suggestions,
and share with you some of the FM reception tips that have worked for
me and others.
As you know, tuning in an FM signal isn't the same as tuning in an AM
station. For one thing, FM transmissions are line-of-sight. That means
that obstacles between you and the transmission that you're trying
to receive can block the signal and leave you with poor reception.
A hill, a coliseum, big buildings - all these things could get in the
way of your FM reception and could even leave you hearing the effects
of multipath interference. You get multipath interference when a signal
meets an obstacle of some sort, let's say a mountain. Depending on
the signal strength and the conditions of the mountain, the signal
might get absorbed or reflected. You'll end up with poor reception,
as the different paths taken by the reflected signal arrive at your
receiver at different intervals.
Fortunately, multipath interference usually happens when you're in your car, so
it tends to be pretty easy to overcome by finishing your drive around
a city loop or the base of a mountain. Still, some people might experience
all sorts of interference at home as well, and that's where a better
antenna might do the trick.
Most portable radios have whip, or telescoping antennas that work fairly
well when the radio is set close to a window and away from sources
of significant interference. If you always have your whip antenna fully
extended, however, you may not be getting the reception you're expecting.
Sometimes you'll get better reception for a certain station when the
whip antenna isn't fully extended. Occasionally, to pull in the cleanest
signal you'll have to go by trial and error - experimenting with extending
the antenna to different lengths, and also pointing it in different
directions (only if your antenna is designed to rotate, of course).
If playing around with the antenna and moving the radio around doesn't
improve your reception as much as you like, you may need to move toward
a more powerful indoor or outdoor antenna. An outdoor
unidirectional antenna, also known as a yagi, is the most
powerful option. A yagi looks like rooftop TV antenna, and is ideal
for tuning in distant stations, or for reducing multipath interference.
By aiming the yagi at the signal you want to capture, you can basically
tune out most types of interference - be it from competing signals,
buildings, or a weak signal.
Another alternative in outdoor antennas is an omni directional FM antenna.
Though omnidirectional antennas might not reduce interference as much
as unidirectional antennas, their ability to pickup stations cleanly
from all directions make them a good choice if you're not aiming for
a specific, distant station. The Fanfare
Omni Directional FM Antenna offered by C. Crane isn't your
average omni directional antenna. It can be used indoors or out, and
has a thin whip antenna that's very easy to hide.
If you don't have access to the outside of your building, you might want
to go for a good dipole antenna. T-shaped, these antennas offer pretty
decent reception indoors, and are also easy to hide if necessary. C.
Crane carries the FM
Reflect antenna, one of the most advanced indoor antennas
you can get - its up to 213% more powerful than a standard dipole antenna.
Whichever antenna you chose, be sure you're not getting more than you need. Sometimes
just switching to mono rather than stereo or putting a portable radio
in a different spot can improve reception - you might also be lucky
enough to improve your reception by just attaching a simple wire to
the external FM antenna jacks. If these quick and easy solutions don't
work for you, however, or if you can hear a signal in your car but
not when you go inside, you may want to consider one of the antennas
I mentioned here.
To view our past articles, please visit our What's in the News Archives.
As always, please contact us with any comments or
article suggestions you might have.
If you are interested in using C. Cranes articles on your own Web site,
please let me know. Id be happy to take a look at your Web site and
see what we can do. Good-bye for now, Carlos. About
the author
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