Every now and then, people around here who have coverted to cable toss
their old TV antenna off the roof. And when I say "toss," I mean toss.
The antennas are usually mangled by smacking into the ground. If not,
then the owners will stomp on them until the antenna fits into the
trash can.

One recent exception was, of all things, an amateur operator. He
carefully lowered the antenna and left it undamaged next to the trash
can. I scavenged it of course. Since FM is between channels 6 and 7, a
TV antenna is at least a starting point.

As for the mangled ones, sometimes it's just the elements that are
mangled. The central boom is still straight. In that case, I would be
tempted to break open an ARRL antenna book and build an antenna that
was optimized for performance at the one frequency that was of interest
to me.

In my case, there is an FM station in Annapolis that is impossible to
receive well on a regular basis, so I am in the same boat. I would aim
the antenna towards Annapolis and forget about using it across the band.

Beloved Leader wrote:
One recent exception was, of all things, an amateur operator. He
carefully lowered the antenna and left it undamaged next to the trash
can. I scavenged it of course. Since FM is between channels 6 and 7, a
TV antenna is at least a starting point.

Sometimes. Some TV antennas are built to have a "hole" between 6 and 7; they
won't do much good. But when the antenna is free, it's worth a try.

--
If John McCain gets the 2008 Republican Presidential nomination,
my vote for President will be a write-in for Jiang Zemin.

On Sat, 21 Jan 2006 13:13:48 -0600, clifto wrote:

Beloved Leader wrote:
One recent exception was, of all things, an amateur operator. He
carefully lowered the antenna and left it undamaged next to the trash
can. I scavenged it of course. Since FM is between channels 6 and 7, a
TV antenna is at least a starting point.

Sometimes. Some TV antennas are built to have a "hole" between 6 and 7; they
won't do much good. But when the antenna is free, it's worth a try.
FM Broadcast is between TV Channel 6 and an Aeronautical VHF band, a
couple of 2-Way Radio bands wrapped around the 2 Meter Ham band and
THEN TV Channel 7.

Yes. I think channel 6 is 82-88 MHz and channel is 174-180 MHz.

Channel 7 is 174-180 MHz. I can't type either.

Beloved Leader wrote:
Yes. I think channel 6 is 82-88 MHz and channel is 174-180 MHz.

I think so, too.

--
If John McCain gets the 2008 Republican Presidential nomination,
my vote for President will be a write-in for Jiang Zemin.