directional FM antenna + omni-directional DAB/FM antenna spliced together on one coax

brianorca, 5 months ago

No, I don’t think that would work. Combining two antenna in one coax would combine the waveforms, which could result in destructive interference and much less signal. Even in the best case, you would lose any benefit of the directional antenna.

freedomPusher, 5 months ago

Thanks for the tip. bummer to hear I have to run separate coax cables or come up with some kind of remote switch.

AntifaNI, 5 months ago (edited 5 months ago)

A pair of diplexers (specific to the frequency ranges in question) would do the trick.

But depending on what reception is like in your area it may be the case that your FM aerial fortuitously picks up sufficient DAB signal for a separate DAB aerial to prove unnecessary ?

freedomPusher, 5 months ago

The idea would be to have one omni-directional antenna for both FM and DAB, and a separate directional one for one particular FM station that’s hard to get. Perhaps I should first build the omni-directional antenna – and maybe it will prove good enough to pick up the one weak station. If not, then I would build a directional one.

LanternEverywhere, 5 months ago

I'm not from this community, so forgive me if I'm missing the point. If this is a regular fm radio station you're talking about then you can just stream it over the Internet

freedomPusher, 5 months ago

Yes that’s true but the reason I listen to broadcast radio in the first place is because I’m on a limited connection. Broadcast radio consumes zero internet bandwidth. It’s also a lower carbon footprint (the transmission energy is spent whether I receive it or not).

LanternEverywhere, 5 months ago

Your first point makes total sense, interesting to know, thanks. Your second point i would guess probably doesn't make sense. You'd probably have to stream an enormous amount of internet radio before it would create more pollution than is created by buying the hardware components that you're talking about.

freedomPusher, 5 months ago (edited 5 months ago)

The CO₂ footprint of streaming is significant. That article is about video, and audio would be much less, but when you listen to the audio all day long it’s significant enough.

There’s also a privacy factor. To stream radio online with the same level of privacy as receiving a radio broadcast requires using Tor, which likely triples the footprint with the 3 encrypted hops.

W.r.t hardware, my DAB player is a multi-function device; not just a tuner but also speakers, bluetooth & USB. It’s the same speakers I would use if playing an internet stream. To improve reception the hardware to add for the antenna is quite simple: aluminum pipe, bolts, and coax… nothing that would generate more e-waste.