Outdoor antenna setup

While I cannot comment on how the phases of the moon and the mating habits of insects affect the FM signal, I can pass on some real world results.

I am running a very large Winegard TV/FM Antenna in my attic crawl space. The entire FM band is between TV channels 6 and 7, so a good VHF TV antenna will work as good as any FM only antenna, despite what the sellers of over-priced FM antennas will tell you. Just make sure the FM trap is OFF if the antenna has one. I do use Star-Quad RG6 coax cable. You could also consider a powered preamp to boost the signal.

I find 60 miles is the best I can do for a quality FM stereo signal. I can get stations further out with the mute off and in mono for better sound. I would do slightly better if my antenna was outside.

A bonus is that I also use it for television in some rooms that don't have cable/satellite hookups.

A great web site for information on classic tuners is:

http://www.geocities.com/tunerinfo/

Does having an outdoor antenna subject your whole stereo system to the possibility of being fried by lightning? A salesman at rat shack told me lightning hit his tv antenna and not only took out his TV but even the two inch bolts screwed into his chimney were blown out of the brick.

Lightning can be a problem. I always unplug my stereo - including FM lead-in - whenever a storm is overhead.

Lightning is one reason I like mine under the roof in the attic. There it also does not alter the appearance of the house.

In Los Angeles, most of the broadcast transmitters are located on Mount Wilson at a height of 5400+ ft. This helps with the line-of-sight problem, adding another degree of arc earth radius and extending the range to 100+ mi through the Southland basin. Nevertheless, at a distance of 20 mi. from the KUSC (the premiere classical station in the area, 91.5 MHz) tower, I had to install an APS-14, a highly-directional, 12 dB gain antenna, on a 20 ft. roof mast with rotator, to receive it cleanly and avoid interference from a station from Mexico broadcasting at 91.7 MHz. This was with an Onkyo T-9090.