Hello Gene:

I once lived in little community over looking the San Fernando valley in
So California. I was surrounded by mountains and hills. I wanted to pick
up a FM Broadcast station several miles over the hills.

I installed a modest FM Broadcast Beam or directional Antenna on a small
mast with a rotor. I turned the beam antenna to the direction of the
transmitter, but heard only bleed over from other FM Stations. I was
disappointed about not being able to receive the FM Station almost 60
miles away. I turned the beam antenna now to all directions and to my
sup rise I could now here the FM Station with good audio quality!

I was pointed the beam antenna in the wrong direction, but hearing the
FM Station just fine. The Signal was bouncing off one of the mountains
and I was hearing a reflection off the mountain. I was impressed.

I listened to other FM Frequencies and heard all different kinds of
stations coming in from long distances. While listing to just one
frequency and then turning the beam antenna I could get different
stations coming in and other disappearing as the beam antennas was moving.

Using a beam antenna and rotor may save you a bunch of time and hassle.
Even if you just find one direction that it works in for your application.

Jay in the Mojave


EpsilonRho wrote:

I live in a area where the radio FM signals from various broadcasts are
quite weakly and coming from different directions. I was thinking to put on
my roof an omnidirectional vertical coaxial FM antenna (two elements of 1/4
wavelength), but I think that the losses through the coax cable could be
substantial. In order to alleviate this problem, I could put an in-line
amplifier just under the antenna. As an alternative, would be possible to
install multiple vertical coaxial antennas, perhaps 3 of them, forming a
triangle and connect them in parallel? But by doing, the characteristic
impedance would drop by a factor of three. Is perhaps a three way splitter
more suitable to maintain the correct output impedance? At what distance
should I install the antennas from each other to assure omnidirectionality?
I am not very knowledgeable about antennas, having just a degree in power
generation.
Many thanks for you help & advice.
Gene