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Can TV antenna receive FM & AM? (1 Viewer)

Rich G

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I have a tower TV antenna outside the house. Can this antenna be used to receive FM & AM radio stations? I have uhf and vhf leads through out the house and connection could be quite easy.

Thanks for any info,
 

Saurav

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I have used my TV's antenna with an FM tuner, and it worked very well. My antenna wire ended in little spade lugs, with (I think) 300 ohms, and you need a black plastic thingy to convert the connector to the round one needed by the TV (don't know what that's called) and 75 ohms impedance. My tuner needed 300 or whatever ohms, so I used the antenna with just the cables ending in the spade lugs. It worked perfectly.
 

Rich G

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Thanks Saurav, I guess I should just try it. In the past I've taken simple single wires and stuck them in the rear of old car stereos and home receivers and it helped pick up stations.
 

BobPeck

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This should work. I've read (while trying to find some antenna that would let me pickup stations on my Outlaw 1050 (the one gripe I have with it)) and someone said that FM radio frequencies were between channels 6 & 7 (VHF).

While not optimized for th ~80MHz-108MHz, it should work.
 

Wayne A. Pflughaupt

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Yes, a TV antenna will pick up FM stations. If I remember correctly, they are all in the frequency spectrum between TV channels 2 and 3 (or maybe 3 and 4—I can’t remember which).

However, most outdoor TV antennas are directional, and you will only be able to pick up stations broadcasting from the direction that the antenna is aimed.

For FM reception, it might be better to use an omni-directional antenna. Radio Shack sells one for about $15

TV antennas will not pick up AM broadcasts.

Hope this helps,

Wayne A. Pflughaupt
 

Chuck Kent

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My experience is pretty much as Wayne's. VHF TV antennae can receive FM (but no AM) as long as they do not have any type of FM trap filtering installed (FM traps are used to help prevent FM interference in some cases.) The easiest way to find out if your's will work is to buy a splitter, hook up the FM tuner and try it.

(BTW, the FM band sits at and just above the channel 6 audio frequency. Channel 6 audio can be picked up on all FM tuners at the bottom 87.7 frequency.)
 

Elliott Willschick

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I was wondering if anyone could reccomend an antenna for FM frequencies from other cities. Howard Stern was taken off of the air in Toronto and my brother would like to be able to hear him from Buffalo. We get it in the car but what could I use at home?

Thanks
 

Wayne A. Pflughaupt

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Elliott,

The onmi-directional FM antenna from Radio Shack I mentioned is good for about 50 miles, if I remember. If you need more range than that, a TV antenna will do the job. Just buy one with the range you need and aim it towards the station’s broadcast tower.

If you have another antenna for local stations, you could use an antenna A/B switch to engage the antenna you need for any given time.

Regards,

Wayne A. Pflughaupt
 

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