Piggie

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EscapeVelocity

Yes, there is always teh beamwidth to consider.

EscapeVelocity

Do this, and other VHF High Television Band antennas, receive FM signals well?

Are VHF Low/VHF High combo antennas better for FM generally?

Thanks Don!

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Piggie

No on high band antennas, see where I answered the same question. Which antenna is really the best for deep fringe? 91xg, CM 4228, or??

Most combos will do well on FM, if there isn't an FM trap in the system. See link above.

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Don_M

A qualified yes, and yes: As always, it depends on what the owner wants to accomplish. I use the Y5 for analog FM through the Winegard CA-8800 mentioned in a separate post. In this dry climate, the combination nets clean FM stereo out to about 50 miles and mono out to about 75 miles from an attic mount. YMMV, of course. High-banders aren't designed for the FM band, but since they are a quarter wave for that set of frequencies, they are of use to a casual FM listener who only seeks local stations.

Having said that, I wouldn't recommend this approach to either DXers or those interested in Hybrid Digital FM. Only an antenna designed for low band VHF will do for such enthusiasts; a 2-13 antenna will beat a 7-13 high-bander for FM every time. The gain difference would be crucial to HDFM listeners more than about 25 miles away from the transmitter.

Piggie

I wrote that in the linked thread. That a high band outside will outperform a dipole hung on the wall inside. But it's location, not the right antenna. I am sure you could mount a 2 meter or 1 1/4 meter ham ground plane on the roof and do well on local FM stations that are just a little bit too far for an inside antenna. I would not surprise me if you hooked up a 70 cm collinear vertical to an FM radio it would help.

The real point here is anything that will conduct electrical current is an antenna. But unless it's the proper length with the proper feed system it won't work nearly as well.

On receive many things are very tolerant.

Good example.

Go string a 40 meter antenna for the CW part of the band (7.1 MHz). Then pull out a 15 meter exciter and drive it into that antenna. You will find up in the upper SSB part of the band (around 21.3 MHz) your reflected wave is extremely low. Dipoles will resonant at odd positive harmonics, not sub harmonics. So if I tried to feed 3.05 MHz into that dipole the reflected wave would be off scale. It also won't resonant with a decent feed point impedance as even harmonics. If I tried to feed 14.2 or 28.4 MHz into the dipole it would show a high reflected wave as well.

But that said, receivers are much less picky. They prefer a resonant feed for maximum transfer of the signal into the feedline, then the receiver. However they will appreciate any antenna you give them to some degree.

On that same dipole, if I am Short Wave Listening (no transmitting) I can use it fairly well across most of the common SW Bands below about 10 MHz down to about 4MHz. It also works fine up around 21 MHz. Much much broader range of reception.

But if you get to when the antenna is a full wave length around 21 meter SW band, I can switch to my 20 meter dipole and hear a marked improvement in SW stations.

Now you say, wait, full wave length dipoles and vertical resonant! Yes, but a full wavelength dipole has an extremely high input resistance and little energy is transferred to the coax.
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Now back to a high band beam.

The directors are 1/4 waves. And yes a 1/4 wave will resonant, but much prefers to be over a ground plane. But there is no feed point on them so they should resonant to a degree. Some of this captured energy is feed into the active elements. But I would be surprised if it's even above 0dbd of gain. It would be interesting to see it analyzed on an antenna range or software.

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