F M Aerial

[tapid]

Thanks Svend. Woo , that looks good but a bit beyond me price wise I m afraid. There s a few options on eBay, amazon etc so probably give one of them a go first.
Whats big in Canada DAB or are you all fm dinosaurs over there ?

[Svend N]

Yup, pretty much in the antediluvian stage here still. FM and AM only. They tried DAB years ago, but it was slow to catch on and eventually abandoned. I think we just don't have the population here to support that, combined with a huge geographic area. We have 10,000,000 sq. km of territory, compared to the UK at 250,000. Distances between major cities are huge compared to Europe/UK. Logistically and financially unviable to do things like that here. That's one reason why our mobile phone rates are so high here, is the infrastructure needed to cover the land area vs. a relatively small population.

Anyway, not a tale of woe . We have terrific FM stations here (Toronto area), so always good stuff to listen to. Sound quality on a good FM tuner is great.

Cheers,
Svend

[Mike Reed]

We're near Belsize Park tube, which is not that low down but we are surrounded by Hampstead Heath and Primrose Hill. No idea if that affects anything ?

My old happy hunting ground in the swinging sixties. How come you have a roof-top FM antenna on a 4 storey house when you live in the ground floor flat? Is it not possible to re-route the coax from where you used it to where you are now? Even creating an extension cable might prove superior to anything indoors, especially on the ground floor. Okay, Belsize Park isn't Hampstead Village but it is pretty high, unless you're down towards the West End and lower heath.

[tapid]

Hi Mike, No, pretty sure its an ordinary tv aerial up there, but when in my previous room I could connect through tv socket in wall for perfect fm radio reception.
Surely that would mean trailing cables through the flat though ?. Sorry, not very techie, maybe misunderstanding you ?. Were in between Chalk Farm and Hampstead village.
Very close to the old Haverstock pub, where you may have sipped a pint or 2. Keep thinking that speaker might out grow you btw

[Mike Reed]

Hi Mike, No, pretty sure its an ordinary tv aerial up there, but when in my previous room I could connect through tv socket in wall for perfect fm radio reception.
Surely that would mean trailing cables through the flat though ?. Sorry, not very techie, maybe misunderstanding you ?. Were in between Chalk Farm and Hampstead village.
Very close to the old Haverstock pub, where you may have sipped a pint or 2. Keep thinking that speaker might out grow you btw

But Belsize Park IS half way between Chalk Farm and the village. Ah, TV aerial ! Yes, you'd get a signal but not a good one, esp. if it's a communal aerial (horrors !) I think you may be lumbered with an internal one, which might work better if your room is on the side of the heath and without too much impediment in the way. As I get sufficient signal to support an old Sony receiver in the kitchen from a coax trailing up the wall (with transmitter 9 crow miles away), try that first as it's cheap/free. Strip back to the core about 25% of the length. Worth a punt !

[tapid]

I was more than happy with reception through tv aerial, at least no nasties but I suppose dedicated FM/ a is another step up. Yes will try something next w/k , thanks for advice.
The even worse problem though is tv hd with even BBC 1/2 etc dropping out today, might try there helpline ?. Might need the modern day Ron Smith up there to have a look who knows !
Were on primrose hill side unfortunately with some huge houses in between, so maybe thats not helping ? b w.