Stellar Labs,Outdoor FM Antenna OMNIDIRECTIONAL

This antenna works great. These days there is a lack of effort by manufacturers of audio equipment to build good quality FM receivers because everyone streams music or mp3's but a few of us still like listening to the good old radio. This antenna makes the lackluster receivers (and transmitters too) perform like things did in the old days. I have this mounted about 20 feet above the ground and feeding a Sony receiver amplifier and it lets me hear the stations I like. Do not forget to add some lighting protecting to this if you are putting it up above a structure! It's cheap and easy and prevents you from getting things inside your house that you want kept outside your house!!! Just search for an F-type lightening arrestor here on Amazon and make sure it has a good ground connection and that's all you need.

Just get this antenna as high over your house as you reasonably can, then use the best coax you can "reasonably" afford (solid copper center is best) and you will be very, very happy with your reception. I actually have two of these antennas co-phased just about ten feet above my roof. One is a quarter wavelength below the first (@100.1 MHZ) on a pole with "matched" jumpers into a combiner using Belden solid copper center conductor coax, down through a ground block @ ground level(featuring three ground rods driven into a triangle and welded together) straight into an old antenna/distribution preamp that I used 35 years ago, this signal then eventually goes into my old NAD tuner. It's a hard setup to beat and performs well even without the preamp(I only have it in-line for DXing. With the Belden coax it's totally not needed) I enjoy excellent reception from these antennas as well as excellent audio performance when used with the NAD tuner! I could not ask for more! I do have this antenna source split into both of my tuners, my SONY receiver is handy with the presets but as far as seriously fine "off air" audio quality, that's the NAD hands down. Eventually I will get my tower and my old APS-13 YAGI up, rotor and then this antenna will only be my "local" "omni-directional set up" when the long range directional is not required. I will be using these two for a long, long time, maybe not actively as I will have my dx YAGI @72 feet, but I'm also not saying that these two antennas won't find their way to be sitting 5 feet above my directional antenna, waaaay up on top. They would do very well to be up there! I love these antennas! Great without even considering they cost near nothing! Bubble gum money. To Stellar Labs excellent product. To Amazon & "ADVENTURER'S BAG" 2 thumbs up!! Two day service into central Kentucky with no damage twice. Thank you very much. More to come.

How this was supposed to go together was pretty obvious but the elements required a bit of bending and test fitting and bending again before everything lined up right. I'd knock off just half a star for that if I could but... I built an H-frame base out of 2x4s and used a piece of plastic pipe as a mast. My roof trusses are on 24 inch centers so I made the legs of my base 28 inches long so they'd straddle a pair of trusses and put this setup up in the attic. I ran RG6 quad shield to a splitter in the attic and dropped a couple of coaxes down through the wall to feed jacks in two different rooms. This setup is working great. I'm pulling in stations 50 miles to the south and 100 miles to the north of me and everywhere in between. As soon as I tune away from one station I'm picking up another with near zero dead space between stations. I am in a major metropolitan area so there are many, many stations within this 150 mile stretch. The omnidirectional (more or less) pattern of this antenna is just the ticket for my situation. If you're in a similar situation, then I think this antenna should work well for you. If you're way out in the sticks, then a directional antenna with some gain might be a better choice. Even then though, this antenna might surprise you. Considering the very reasonable cost, this baby is probably worth a try in any case.

Nice antenna- Works well... but remember... where you place it and how far you are from the broadcast antenna towers has a lot to do with it's performance. Increased FM reception by 70-80% for me- I live about 60 (hilly) miles from the towers so, I am at the very edge of effectiveness- not because of it's ability, but because of radio wave physics. I have a lot of obstacles around us. It's a good quality, aluminum build with very little plastic. Looks good and will last. (I've owned a few antennas over the last 50 years)

I have to say, that maybe this works a little too well, because I am now not only able to receive many more, very clear stations, yet one station is even picking up two stereo quality signals at the same time. Which is rare, because the receiver (Yamaha RX-V467 in my case), is supposed to distinguish the two and drop the weaker signal. It actually is not able to do that because of the strength, and both come in very clearly as stereo. So far the furthest distance I have received in stereo, within the first hour of testing, is about 61 miles south. I do live in Florida, so there are no tall hills, and the unit is mounted about fifteen feet in the air on an old antenna pole connected to my house outside. I also live right on the coast. More testing is necessary for final conclusion, yet I found no issue with quality of the antenna, as long as you treat it as any antenna should be, and not put to much stress on the components. Use the attached cable lock to lock in the coax before you hook it up to the antenna, and give a nice loop so that the cable is straighter connecting in, and does not pull the connect too much in any one direction. This is common technical knowledge. I paired this with a coax cable from Mediabridge, which I also found on Amazon and that has proven to be a great purchase as well as it allows for very little interference, so that most all stations come in as stereo quality and not mono.

So the other reviews pan this antenna for not being omnidirectional. That's not its only problem...based on tests done with a RigExpert AA-600 it's not really a good FM antenna....I guess up high and away from lots of metal stuff in your attic, it will work better than the little wire dipoles that come with stereos. This antenna in a round configuration as advertised is more of an Air Band antenna than for the FM broadcast band. How to fix? First, ditch the round configuration and go with the "S" configuration. (see pic). Second, the built in connection needs to be bypassed with a $1.00 or less 300 ohm to 75 ohm balun transformer. (Find them easy on Amazon!) That makes it an even better antenna....a little better for FM but still better on the Air band. Now to pull the frequency down: Some people tell you to put a piece of aluminum tape or a wire on it and that works. If you don't have a way to sweep the antenna, where to put it? I decided to use some RFI snap on chokes. I used 4 - 13 mm chokes from a Cedmon 20 piece kit (I needed some of the other sizes, but it's a very reasonably priced kit and on Amazon!) See the attached pic for the placement. This, with the transformer, make this a decent FM antenna. My findings were not from a one off defective antenna. I bought a second antenna and these modifications hold true on it as well. They work even better when you stack the two antennas and combine them with a JoinTenna or other combiner. (When stacked, you only need two RFI chokes on each and you can dispense with the transformer, too. I used the length of the antenna's beam as the separation between the two, or about 18 inches.) Testing was done on both metallic and non-metallic mounting masts and there was no significant changes to the antenna's behavior. My antennas cost me $18.99 each and I see them sold at Home Depot for twice that....they are just ok but I had a lot of fun experimenting with them. They're easy to assemble and the attaching hardware has stood up to me taking them apart and putting them back together several times.

4/6/25 I live in rural SE Arizona, where stations are typically low-power and on the other side of some mountain. With this antenna mounted 25 feet above ground level, and a Denon receiver, I can receive quite a few stations, including five or so that I like some of the time, one of which is 75 miles away and has a signal strength of -103 dBm at my antenna, according to FM Fool. But it's not very clean, and a preamp would probably help. There's no need for an expensive, super-low-noise preamp specifically for FM, since the typical VHF/UHF preamp these days has a noise figure of less than 3dB (i.e. above atmospheric thermal noise, which is very low), and that's for a 6 MHz bandwidth. Each FM channel has a 200 kHz bandwidth, or 1/30th that of a TV channel, which would reduce the preamp's noise figure for FM. The preamp would require low-VHF coverage and couldn't have an FM trap, unless it could be switched off. Overloading the tuner's input, which has to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, doesn't seem to be a concern when using a preamp in my situation. Some FM-DX experts recommend the Winegard LNA-200, which has a noise figure of less than 1 dB. The RCA 2450 VHF/UHF preamp with a switchable FM trap is another option. Its noise figure isn't specified, other than "very low." I've been using an earlier model (TVPRAMP1R) for years to receive some very weak TV signals, but they're digital with built-in error-correction capability, so that even if they're barely detectable, the audio and video are as good as if the signal were strong. ATSC 3.0 will include radio stations, but in a lossy format. I'm waiting for QDEL/nano-LED technology before upgrading to an ATSC 3.0 set. According to a page which can be found by Googling "RCA TVPRAMP1R Amplifier - TV Fool" (include the quotes), the TVPRAMP1R has a noise figure of between 2.6 and 3.9 dB, depending on the frequency. But this is for a 6 MHz bandwidth (TV channel bandwidth), whereas an FM channel has a 200 kHz bandwidth, which is 1/30th that of a TV channel. The atmosphere's thermal noise for a 6 MHz bandwidth is -106 dBm, whereas for an FM channel it's -120 dBm, which might mean that the RCA's noise figure for an FM channel could be very low. But there isn't a simple conversion factor, because the types of modulation have to be taken into consideration. But because the atmospheric thermal noise is -120 dBm for FM channels, even -100 dBm FM signals should have a good carrier-to-noise ratio, and my tuner should be able to extract clean audio from them if they're boosted by about 20 dB. As mentioned above, it does a tolerable job of detecting a supposed -103 dBm signal (KHYT Tucson) even without a preamp. So, I'll probably try the RCA and revise this review with my findings. Running the antenna cable through the wall I needed to run the antenna cable (RG6, with a compression connector attached) through an exterior wall of a mobile home consisting of thin paneling on the inside, studs spaced 16" apart, fiberglass insulation, and a masonite exterior panel. This required a tube to guide the cable. I ended up using 1/2" conduit (slightly more than 1/2" ID), which required a 3/4" hole. I anchored it with a P-clamp, a short 1/4" bolt, and a link of double-link-chain (see photo). To cut this type of chain, I use Greenlee 722 shear-type wire cutters. Tape can be applied to the conduit to give the clamp a better grip. First, I drilled a 3/16" pilot hole through the inside panel into the stud, and then fastened the anchor to the wall with a 1/4x1.75" lag screw. I then inserted a 3/4" wood bit into the pipe clamp to mark the center of the 3/4" hole. When this is being done, the bolt and lag screw should be centered lengthwise in the chain links, to provide some wiggle-room for error. To get the outside hole lined up with the inside hole, I used the stud and a horizontal window sill as references. I had to put some small blocks of plywood on the window sill to obtain a reference that I could use both on the inside and outside. On the outside, I put a piece of 1/4" fuel hose, slit lengthwise with pointy scissors, over the RG6 to protect it from the conduit's edge and to prevent the cable from bending sharply at that point, where the tendency for doing so is greatest. I also cut up a cat food can with tin snips, although scissors might suffice, to create a "hood" to prevent rain from running down the wall and getting into the hole. I taped it on with white Gorilla tape, although roofing tape would be better.

I live out in the country. There was a certain FM radio station that I like to listen to but my home receiver would not pick it up. I could pick it up on my truck radio in certain areas but not within 5 miles of my house. This antenna arrived a couple days ago and I put it together. As I do not have an outdoor mast yet, I got a short length of RG6 and hooked up the antenna and set it atop a lamp next to my receiver. My receiver is digital with the up and down arrows being used to direct the frequency scan. I immediately noticed that I was getting many more stations than I used to. When it finally got to 99.7 it locked in and the station came in crystal clear. I am happy. One thing I would like to mention is that the receiver and the antenna are on the main floor of the house. If I turn on the LED ceiling lights in the basement, it does cause interference. Kinda handy actually as it reminds me to turn off the basement lights when I come up. If I move the antenna to a mast outside and the interference goes away, I will update this review UPDATE: I mounted the antenna outside on top of a ten foot stick of PVC. I had a couple of sticks of EMT in the garage so I ran the RG6 through that to get outside. Now I have zero interference from my LED lights.. This antenna works splendidly for me!!!