(meteorobs) Newbie - Antenna and transmitter selection

Thomas Ashcraft heliotown27 at yahoo.com
Thu May 3 23:53:49 EDT 2007


Siddhartha,

You can try and use the antenna low.  It might work okay.  See a picture of my jury-rigged antennas for some Leonid forward scatter which worked fine mounted low at my location.

http://www.heliotown.com/Radio_Leonids.html

Those antennas are Radio Shack FM yagis.  I don't know if you can still get them but they used to cost about $25. and were very good.  Also very light weight.

Good luck and hopefully you can find a free place on the radio dial where you can work. It has gotten harder over the years to find a vacant frequency on the FM dial.

Tom

Siddhartha Jain <siddhartha at siddharthajain.net> wrote: Hi,

I am a newbie to the world of radio expertise and FM meteor
observation. To pursue this interest, I recently acquired a Yamaha
TX-480 FM receiver that is currently hooked to a cheap radioshack
indoor TV/FM rabbit ears antenna. The FM reception with this setup is
rather weak (generally all radio reception including cellular is
pretty weak in my apartment). So I was wondering about enhancing this
setup with an outdoor Yagi antenna. But the apartment complex rules
restrict any antenna sticking above the patio fence which is approx 7
feet high. Does it make sense to install a yagi antenna this low? If
yes, can someone please help me choose between the following two?

Philips MANT900 20 element antenna
http://www.buy.com/prod/magnavox-mant-900-20-element-vhf-uhf-fm-outdoor-antenna/q/loc/111/90116815.html

Winegard PR 6000 PROSTAR 1000 FM Antenna - 4 element yagi
http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?PROD=SPR6000

I understand that the former will have better gain/reception etc but
if the latter can do the job just fine then I would like to avoid the
bulk of the former. From Santa Clara, CA (95051), I am trying to
listen to a 100kW transmitter in Redding CA at 104.3Mhz  that is 230
miles to the north. Is this a good selection monitor?

Any pointers or help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

- Siddhartha
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