Want good results? You Need Good Antennas

What antennas you use will either make or break your FM DXing experience.

Sure you can use a wire or a dipole for an antenna, but using either of them will yield minimum results. The better your antenna, the better your DXing experience will be.

The best type of antenna to use is a yagi. Yagis are the most directional type of antenna made and they have the most gain. Unfortunately for some folks, yagis are either unaffordable or just not available, which is why I have three construction projects on my website with the seven element yagi being my most downloaded page.

The best antenna I have for DXing is my old APS 13. This particular antenna was found in a pile of stuff at Ed Hanlon’s house in Bolton, CT. Ed was  the “father” of the APS13. Over the years this antenna has been through windstorms and hurricanes and a dozen or two of New England winters. What you see now is an antenna with only 11 elements. I’ve had to redrill new holes for the clamp. I’ve also added a brace under the main boom. It still works great and I love it.

This antenna once was on my roof. The antenna was removed when a new roof was installed.  You can see that now it sits on a five foot tripod about twenty feet above the ground. One of the tripod’s feet has a hole drilled out and replaced with a bolt and nut so the tripod can be tilted over and the antenna lowered for rotor or antenna work if needed. The rotor is an old Channel Master rotor with metal drive gears. The rotor cable was replaced in 2024.

If you are restricted to a site where  you can’t have an antenna on the roof, try the tripod approach. Mount the tripod on 2x4s and weigh them down with cinder blocks and buy three heavy duty tent stakes and some heavy wire from Walmart and create three guy wires for added protection against wind. They haven’t failed me yet.

In this part of the world antenna phasing is a necessity due to the HD sidebands from more than a dozen local FM stations using HD. I have two options for antenna phasing. I can use my RSPDuo or I can use a phase box (phaser). Either way, I need an antenna for phasing. My phase antenna is an original Channel Master Probe 9 yagi, shown below.

This antenna is fixed to the southwest, which is the source of almost all my HD IBOC interference and the home of my pesty local translators and LPFMs.  I’m able to totally knock out HD sidebands from my local FM stations on 88.9, 92.5, 93,7, 95.5, 97.9, 99.1, 99,9, 100.5, 102.9, 104.1, 105.5, 105.9 and more.

Thanks for reading.