FM Antennas...

[chrisatpsu]

When i bought my FM transmitter, I picked up a 1/4 wave antenna for it. It came with an instruction manual for adjusting the length of the 5 elements for the best transmission from the unit...

What I want to do now, is pick up a far away FM radio station with my home stereo. it's only one station I want to pick up, could i just extend the length of a telescopic antenna to the dimensions discussed in the transmission antenna instructions?   would a basic telescopic antenna be best? could i use the 1/4 wave antenna?   

[jnealand]

Do they have an internet broadcast?  Might be simpler.

[tbone321]

You may want to use a beam but even there, if the station is too far out ....  Setting the antenna to the correct length will give it the best chance and height from the ground is also an advantage when the transmitter is far away.  Another option is an amplified antenna and for FM, they are not all that expensive.

[chrisatpsu]

True, but I kinda want to learn while I'm at it.

Would my 1/4 wave antenna be suitable for reception?

[tbone321]

Sure it will.  It may not have the sensitivity of a full wave and will not have the selectivity of a beam, but a properly tuned 1/4 wave antenna will function much better than some random length piece of wire.

[chrisatpsu]

do I need the ground plane part of a 1/4 wave antenna (for reception) ?

Is a full wave antenna simply 4 times the length of a 1/4 wave antenna?


The radio station is easy to pull in for some radios so i'm not trying to make something impossible to happen. The radio station is about 60mins away by car. (And that's not a direct route)

[tbone321]

do I need the ground plane part of a 1/4 wave antenna (for reception) ?

No.  The antenna will be a little more efficient with its ground plane but it will work without it.  Just about every portable radio from the past had a telescopic whip antenna with no ground plane and they work just fine.

Is a full wave antenna simply 4 times the length of a 1/4 wave antenna?

Well ...... sorta.  Going back to my ham radio days, a full wave is difficult to impedance match (connect to it) and really works no better than a properly tuned 1/4 wave ground plane or a 1/2 wave dipole antenna.