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FM radio antenna

I have a couple boom boxes with single telescoping antennas. I made folded di-pole antennas tuned to the wave length of my favorite college community radio station to help bring in their low power signal. What is the correct way to hook them up to the telescoping antenna? Most tuners have a 300ohm to 75ohm transformer that has two terminals for the di-pole and plugs into the 75 ohm jack. Do I just twist the wires together on the tail and clip it to the telescope? TIA Chuck

Reply to
JensenC
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The typical folded dipole antenna is made from 300 ohm twin lead. Just connect the feeder line to the 300 ohm terminals. If you use the matching transformer then the feeder line to the 300 ohm transformer terminals and connect the 75 ohm transformer output to the 75 ohm jack.

Bill

Reply to
<salmonegg

I ended up using small stranded speaker wire because I couldn't find twin lead at Radio Shack or home Depot. Anyway, my radios do not have 300 ohm terminals or a 75 ohm jack. They only have a single telescoping antenna so I'm not sure how to correctly hook it up.

Reply to
JensenC

You certainly can measure the impedance and velocity factor of such wire. From a practical point of view, it is probably not necessary. Any old piece of wire, whether matched or not should do unless you are in a fringe area. Don't worry about matching.

Bill

Reply to
<salmonegg

wrap a few turns of insulated wire around the telescope connect the ends to the leads of whatever external antenna you come up with. by being in a better location (i.e. outdoors) the antenna might help you receive signals better then the built in antenna alone.

your best bet for "fringe" reception is a yagi antenna.

second best is a loop where you turn it to null out an interfering signal.

IF you can find a ground point on the radio, attaching a wire and dangling it down to improve the ground plane may help.

sometimes just sitting the radio on a metal surface like a refrigerator or a pizza tin (cookie sheet) can help

Reply to
TimPerry

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