Are Tuners - Audiophile quality

Marv, since when is 20 MHz ( 88 MHz to 108 MHZ ) considered "narrowband" ??? There is NO antenna made that will offer a linear gain curve for that wide of a bandwidth. One could build a design with a low Q ( maximum bandwidth but with lower overall gain ) and tune it for the middle of the band or "peak it" for maximum gain at one end of the band or the other.

As to your comments about "dedicated" FM antennas increasing the selectivity and rejecting out of band signals to a greater extent than "broadband" TV antennas, that IS a falsehood. An antenna that was specifically resonated for FM would also be HIGHLY susceptible to amplifying the 4th harmonic that was originally generated within the CB band. Since hundreds if not thousands of watts are in use on that band with little to no filtering in the amplifiers, high level 4th order harmonics ARE a reality. As such, a higher gain antenna at that frequency could actually INCREASE out of band interference and its susceptability to such things. That is, UNLESS the antenna was highly directional and pointed right at the FM transmitter and the offending CB'er was not in the pathway.

This is not to mention that many earlier cordless phones, baby monitors, etc... are transmitting around 49 MHz. As such, their second harmonic is occuring pretty much smack dab within the FM range.

With those things in mind, optimum performance for anyone that is located at distance from the majority of transmitters would be realized with a large directional yagi array on a rotor mounted as high as possible. Since the majority of citizens don't want to deal with something like that, simply installing SOME type of antenna on one's roof or in the attic would do wonders compared to an indoor wire dipole or rabbit ears. As to the "specialized" FM designs like the Fanfare and Magnum antennas, they are both base loaded designs. Anyone that works with RF knows that base loading is pretty low in efficiency. The main benefit of this design is that it offers less wind load and is not quite as ugly as a top or center load. Nonetheless, this design should offer pretty reasonable performance as long as they are vertically oriented and mounted out in the open. The use of a tuned counterpoise underneath them would also benefit them quite a bit.

Simply using the "homebrew" center fed dipole mounted vertically that i detailed how to build in a previous post might also solve a LOT of reception problems for less than $5. Sean
>

The biggest problem it the strong 99.8 rap station bleeding into your 99.4 jazz or classical station, not TV 6 or 7 bleed in. I have never lived in an area with either channel (anyone?). The better tuners reject the false signals. For folks living in Massachusetts there is an FM station that can be heard up and down the whole dial when not tuned to a particular station. It is WFCR I believe. It's up to the tuner to cut it out. An antenna is not going to help.

Sugarbrie, both of your examples are situations that are either caused by the transmitters not meeting FCC compliance or what is called "front end overload" due to close proximity.

If your not REAL close to the transmitters, make a few phone calls to the offending stations and ask for the station engineer. Once they get on the phone, explain to them your situation and ask them about the "deviation" of the signal. Let them know that you will be filing a formal complaint with the FCC and that they need to pay closer attention to the legalities and technical issues involved with operating a licensed transmitter. Then hang up. Believe me, you will scare the shit out of them. They will run back to the control center and dial things down in a heartbeat. If they don't, that formal complaint to the FCC just MIGHT be necessary. Sean
>

dcaudio,

i live in jefferson, md - about 60 miles nw of dc, towards the bottom of the western side of a ~1600' ridge. w/my roof-mounted aps-13 antenna, and an onix bwd1 w/soap power-supply, i get *excellent* audiophile sound from dc. but there's only two stations i find worth listening to, for signal quality *and* content - weta/90.9, which plays classical, & some mixed programming, when it's not broadcasting npr. i especially like "songs for aging children", broadcast from 7-9pm on sunday evenings. but, i mostly listen to wpfw, @ 89.3. this howard-u station plays lotsa jazz, caribbean, s-american & african music. i listen to this station a *lot*! great content (if ewe *like* this sorta stuff), & a good uncompressed signal. if ewe like listening to either of these stations, there's *lots* of tunas for ~$500 (plus or minus $500, depending on model & how careful ya shop!), that, when hooked-up to a good antenna, will deliver great sound. 'course, i recommend shopping used! :>)

if ya like stations like dc101, *no* tuna will make that sound good, & i'm not criticising the music, yust the compressed signal. however, i have found that a dbx 3bx dynamic range expander can make extremely compressed signals sound quite listenable - not yust from a good tuna, but from a good cd-player or turntable, if the software happens to be compressed...

doug s.