From: utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!CAD:tektronix!tekcad!shauns Newsgroups: net.audio Title: Re: How can I improve my FM reception? Article-I.D.: tekcad.353 Posted: Mon Feb 7 20:55:50 1983 Received: Fri Feb 11 03:32:17 1983 You've got the right idea-the best thing you can do for your FM reception is get a good antenna. Living in an apartment is a problem-but if you have a room in your place larger than about 2-3meters on a side, you can put up a rhomboid antenna. This is a wire type antenna that is non-resonant and highly directional, which means lots of gain to pull in those weak signals and and narrow beam width to keep out nasty multipath. If you live in one of the stone canyons of the N.E. (such as New Haven trying to pull in New York) you know how important directionality is. A useful article on this type of antenna appeared in Audio magazine a year or two back; I suggest you look at it or dig up the ARRL Antenna Book for more detail. In regards to classical stations-I've heard some pretty poor ones, but in general they have to be better because the classical listener won't stand for all the tricks that Pop stations pull, such as compression, limiting, etc. Secondly, the source material is far better in the classical station. Most Pop tunes are gain-ridden to the point that they only have about 6-10dB dynamic range-and then, to reach the maximum audience, the station will modulate to the hairy edge. What comes out is not much better than AM. However, if you're hearing hiss on these stations, it may be because they're not broadcasting in your direction or a big hill is in the way. Given the much lower transmit power of the usual classical station and the wider dynamic range of the programming, I'd expect to hear hiss from this type of station first. Blather, blather, blather... Shaun Simpkins uucp: {ucbvax,decvax,chico,pur-ee,cbosg,ihnss}!teklabs!tekcad!shauns CSnet: shauns@tek ARPAnet:shauns.tek@rand-relay