Antennacraft FM6 in Canada

[pluche]

Hi. I'm looking to buy/import the above-mentioned antenna in Canada. The only place I found (Solid Signal) sells the antenna cheap enough alright (21.95$) but shipping amounts to a whopping 78$.

Anyone here with a better ideal? Please come forward!!! Thanks.

[cd637299]

If I were you, unless a club mamber has one of those to sell, I'd call the Radio shack stores near the QC border in the USA (in your case, Plattsburgh or Burlington) and ask if they have any of their 6-element FM antennas available.

They are no longer in stock in the catalog, but some stores may still have some. That's how I got mine....calling around.

It would be best to drive there across the border & pick it up, to save those horrendous charges. Even with the price of gas, you will be in better shape.

The Shack FM antennas are quite good in terms of "bang for the buck."

If that does not help, there is always eBay.

cd

[pluche]

Thank you cd637299 for your advice. I know what you mean, calling around the Montreal area RS stores is how I got a hold of two 10-element FM yagis back in the mid-90s for something like 15$ each! Now that was a while before RS turned into The Source (By Circuit City, what a joke!).

But as I wrote in another thread, those beat in the wind and are now part of "panache" history. There performed quite well while they lasted as the assembly wasn't exactly top notch you see!

But now that I purchased the very selective Sangean HD1X I hear DX stories around here and I feel pretty bug-beaten and so I want to get back into action despite my limited space (hence the FM6).

I've looked on eBay and there are none to be found. But I will consider calling stores across the great divide!

Funny that it costs 19$ to ship to anyone in the lower 48 (for a store located in upper Michigan) and it would cost 78$ to ship here... practically next door.

[cd637299]

You do make a point I forgot about....the R Shack antennas/ "durability" or lack of it. It is a trade-off for the price.

I did forget that there are/were Shack stores in Canada, and I did not know they sold out to another owner.....

Also living in Canada, you have an advantage as a DXer that those of us in bigger cities in the US do not: you don't have IBOC hiss to deal with. Here in Miami almost all the FM stations have it now, and it is killing the hobby.

That being said.....my excitement will be the shut down of analog TV here next year. Other countries' TV stations on the low channels will be wide open. I have never seen QC on TV E-skip, but ch 2 MTL will be a goal of mine. In 1994 I caught QC for the only time: 95.9 & 96.9 in your city.

cd

[pluche]

Now this is my kind of talkin! For you guys down in Fla to catch southern Quebec stations should not be too much of a deal considering that at my latitutde, many (if not most) of the E skip stations we get are from Georgia to Texas and everything in between, with emphasis on northern to central Florida State. And indeed your catch of the 96.9 station (CKOI-FM) is warranted, especially considering that this station broadcasts at a whopping 307KW while all others sit at the regular power level of 100KW.

Power is one thing our stations have and it comes at a steep price: splatter and intermod all over the dial. You need extremely selective and strong-filtered receivers to make due around these parts. And if I were caught between a rock and a hard place, I'd be inclined to prefer IBOC hiss over all that mess if you ask me!

Funny how this E skip business goes. When I was younger, I lived 480 miles north east of my current Montreal location, on the Gaspe coast and practically all stations we'd get on our pristine FM dial were from the latitude of the Carolinas. In those days, I could point huge VHF yagis slightly inclined upward toward the south-western sky between late April all the way to late August and have entire afternoon delights of my favorite tunes in "full-quiet" FM stereo (which was quite novel back then). Those of you old enough will remember that the late 70s were at the height of one of the strongest sunspot cycles on record yielding blistering E and F skip conditions.

Want some more of this? In June of 1987 I traveled 1800 miles due north of Quebec city to a very remote village on the shores of upper Hudson Bay (Northern Quebec) called Puvugnituk for a translation contract and had with me a most perfect DX portable boombox (AIWA). On my very first night there, I took a three-wheeler ATV and climbed up a little hill and sat there for a while, gazing at the midnight sun but my main purpose was to hear what was going on on the extremely quiet AM dial (looking for medium wave European catches). So I instinctly stretched out the wip antenna and spun the FM dial just for kicks and... lo-and-behold, I immediatly stumbled across 93.3 FM in Quebec City (which was my hometown at the time so ID'ing was easy) and 94.9 WHOM from Mount Washington which was booming in. I was thinking to myself, WHOM with its transmitter height and documented ERP must be such a E catch all over the continent!

And to conclude, I would like to pass this piece of info to my fellow Canadian DXers. I did find a place in British Columbia called WYTEK (www.wytekdirect.ca) who sells the Antennacraft FM6 for 50$ + 20$ shipping. Now this ain't no givaway but I will make the jump and get it.

Thanks for reading and sharing the memories! Pluche

[cd637299]

1800 miles???!? Not km? That is amazing....I lived in Alaska in the US Air Force from 1978-80, and there was no trace of E-skip at all. I figured it was due to the latitude....that, and no good channel 2's in E range. I did not even get Tr.....the only 100 kW Alaskan at the time was KGTL in Homer, about 200-250 miles....never got it. Of course, personal outdoor antennas were taboo.

My DXing in Anchorage was strictly AM, and a little SW.....ANC is a great place for that, if only in winter months.

Glad you got the order from the website....that sounds like the way to go.

Seriously, I live near Miami in the very south of FL....so, QC means 1300 miles. I only knew the 96.9 from hearing "c'est quoi". And yes at 307kW it should be easier than it is!

PM me if you wanna trade DX war stories, pluche. I really don't have much in the arsenal though.

BTW I once heard CBM 940 (when my local was off the air, which now is never) & CKLM 1570, back in the 70s, from south FL....but those days are long gone.

cd

[pluche]

Yup. 1800 miles (not km). In the mid 80s mileage was still a norm for many of us and that's how I remember the distance to that place I traveled to.

I don't know about Alaska but when summer peaks in Northern Quebec, the temperature reaches well into the 70s (for a few days at least) and that's when you have to peel your ears to the radio. Forget about tropo because there are no stations to be caught over a 300-500 mile range but E skip did work on this faithful night!

And I can't wait to get my little beam installed. Up a 26 story building, it should be efficient enough, considering that the wire strap that comes with the HDT1X is already performing... decently. I'll keep my comments for a week from now, when I actually get the thing.

And about St Florida well let's just say that I almost killed a rented car battery in March of 05 when I traveled to Orlando. I parked in a open space parking lot near Disney World in Orlando at 1PM in the afternoon and left very late at night scanning the airwaves. I was amazed at how different the MW landscape sounds from let's say my latitude. And all those cuban and central american stations that I could hear clearly but nothing from down east (except maybe for WSM.

Note that I could remember a few of the stations I'd hear in Orlando (namely the Cuban time station on 570) way back in Gaspe during auroras where North American stations are practically cancelled to the benefit of further south.

And about CBM 940, let's just say that the transmitter is about to know the full extent of the AM debacle. In short: CBM 940 was at the time a CBC afiliate. Then in the late 90s, CBM moved to 88.7 FM, leaving the transmitter to be used by Corus intertarinment for something called News 940 which was an all-news all the time format. This format was killed Tuesday of last week (that's right) to be replaced by "Montreal's Music Memories". This late format plays lame tunes from the 60s thru the 90s so we all know where that's eventually going. Donw down down and out. And that promises to be "down switch" for the 50KW 940 transmitter in Montreal for sure.

Now time to get back to work!!!

I'll keep you posted as my events unfold! Bye.