Boosting radio signals

BadWithComputer

The Local Drunkard
Joined
Aug 19, 2005
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Age
33
My Satellite Setup
30MB ADSL ONO, Spain
32" Internet connected TV
Many Satellite Dishes.
Humax HD Freesat Box
My Location
Spain
Ok, may or not be in right thread, but how could i improve reception off my analogue radio? it itself has a 60cm ariel, and i want to pick up a weak signal 60km away. How can i boost it?

thanks
 

Lancelot

Retired Mod
Joined
Jun 1, 2004
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My Satellite Setup
SS1.
125cm Gibbi with Channelmaster feedhorn and Inverto C120 twin.
36v H to H 62E - 61.5W
My Location
South central
Get a 4 or 5 element beam and some good quality coax.
I'm assuming your radio has an ext antenna input, and we are talking about VHF 88-108MHz here.

L.:)
 

spiney

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Apr 29, 2005
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My Satellite Setup
Pace 2200 Sky digibox with ftv card, Comag SL65 FTA sat receiver, 40cm Sky minidish, Setpal terrestrial receiver (for free uk tv only!).
My Location
Midlands
Sounds like a rod aerial.

Get a length of (any!) wire several metres long, take one end and wrap 9-10 turns around the rod aerial, then experiment with moving the wire around, reception of some stations should improve for some wire positions.

(the wire can be insulated, or not, doesn't matter).

Otherwise, radio peformance is limited by the tuner front-end design, more expensive is better.

Or yes, you can use a proper fm Yagi aeiral, but is it worth the expense?

If getting fm multiplex stereo, then that will be noisy, whatever you do.
 

Llew

cerca trova...
Staff member
Joined
Jan 1, 2000
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Age
81
My Satellite Setup
Triple Dragon, Dreambox 8000, Echostar AD3000ip, TBS6522,6925,6983 PCie cards.
Gibertini 1.25m motorised dish driven by the AD3000, with either Inverto BU Quad or Norsat / XMW Ka LNBs . SMW 1.05m + 3 other dishes. Speccy: Promax HD Ranger+
My Location
The Flatlands of East Anglia
With my little Sony ICF7600, the accessory to have was the AN1 booster amplifier. You could plug its cable into the antenna socket, or if this overloaded the front end, you plugged it into a little dongle that slid along the rod aerial.

The radio even had tuneable BFO, great for resolving packet radio, RTTY etc. when used with a PC and suitable interface.

Llew
 

spiney

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Joined
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Messages
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Reaction score
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My Satellite Setup
Pace 2200 Sky digibox with ftv card, Comag SL65 FTA sat receiver, 40cm Sky minidish, Setpal terrestrial receiver (for free uk tv only!).
My Location
Midlands
Ah, well, I had the original Sony 2001, the first "consumer format" frequency synthesised shortwave receiver (Racal etc had expensive ones out earlier). Also with BFO, useful for listening to "hams" chatting.

Still got the damn thing, somewhere, if I can find it under all my junk ....
also the circuit diagram, for some unknown reason.

(never throw anything away, it'll become valuable if you wait long enough ...).

pics, www.universal-radio.com/catalog/portable/icf2001.html ;

http://homepage.mac.com/colus6/wave_ban/2001d/index_en.html .

Those were the days, before sat tv, scanning the 19m band .....
 
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