Follow-Up - New Outdoor FM Antenna

[MR78]

Well, I got the antenna from Antennacraft, FM6. It is up about 20' with a small rotator. Feeding it with RG-6 coax to my McIntosh MX-117 preamp/tuner at the moment.

Interesting in that the PBS station in Oxford, MS, south of Memphis, comes in worse on the antenna than it did on the indoor dipole. Seems to be an issue with overload. I hear NOTHING on the frequency with the antenna pointed at the station. If I enable the pre-selector on the tuner, I hear the station about half scale.

Other distant stations are readable. I could not hear them on the dipole previously. However, it appears that without the pre-selector, the antenna would be a huge bust. It makes all the difference in the world listening to distant signals.

Any comments???????

[John Wilke K9RZZ]

It probably is overload. I've used that FM6 quite a bit and it's a good antenna and will give that receiver lots of signal.

[cd637299]

Would an attenuator help in the case of the overload? I'd think so....

cd

[MR78]

Attenuator is probably a good idea. The pre-selector seems to help quite a bit. The switch is on the back of the damn tuner though. Thanks for your comments. BTW, F/B ratio on the FM6 is so so. Is everyone else seeing that too? Not a big deal. Just noticed it though. I realize that living in a major city is not the place for a nice outdoor array. I wish I lived BETWEEN two major cities.

[cd637299]

Join the club-----oops you just did....

cd

[John Wilke K9RZZ]

Reality check ... it is only 6 elements. :p

[Gary Hickerson]

I too, have a FM 6 and I installed a preamp, at the antenna. Mistake, too Much signal. Works fine, without the preamp.
RS makes a small in-line Attenuator (75 ohm), thats works well, to cut back the overload!

Gary H.