It's Gotta Be Spring Brian Green Winter is over and Mother Earth is waking up. "Spring hath sprung", saith the sage. As winters go it was a good one; lots of snotty roads, getting stuck in 3 feet of snow doing the photos for HP 9 and tweaked antennas from snow and wind. Most Ham magazines feature antennas in their May issue, so what better time to answer a few questions readers have sent in. What's Up - TV & FM One of the most asked questions is how to improve TV and FM reception. I started fooling with TV antennas in '74. I am always after the better picture and more channels. There is more to life than just watching the local channel. Remember this is just a guide, one size does NOT fit all. Get the best you can afford. If you live in a fringe area, the biggest antenna on the highest mast is best. My System Take one Radio Shack top of the line VHF only, V185 antenna (RS part#15-1654, $59.95). Set it atop of a 36 foot, four section telescoping mast (RS#15-5067, $51.95) and you have the start of a good system. I attached the mast to my trailer with wall brackets (RS part#15-886, $8.99) with my 2 meter Ham antenna on top and the TV antenna just below. I just knew I'd hear the world or at least Southern Oregon. There are two ways to connect the antenna to the TV. One is coaxial cable and the other is 300 ½ twin lead. Don't go cheap on feed line, get the good stuff. Belden makes high quality feedlines. I used 300 ½ twin lead. Twin lead has two advantages; it's low loss and inexpensive. On the down side it is very lossy when it gets wet. You can avoid this by giving it a good paste waxing. When you install twin lead, keep it at least 4" away from any metal. Stand-offs will do this job nicely when placed about 4 feet apart. To help cut down on ghosts put a few twists in the twin lead between the stand-offs. Solder spade connectors onto both ends of the twin lead. Prepare as in the figure below, being careful not to nick the wire. A few wraps of electrical tape or shrink tubing will finish the job. INSERTFIG1 Now if you are like most of us around here you also enjoy good sounds. Did you know that your TV antenna comes equipped with an FM antenna? The FM band is located between TV channels 6 & 7. One way to share the RF energy coming down the twin lead is to switch the twin lead to a double pole, double throw switch, DPDT (RS part #275-1537). INSERT FIGURE 2 Run a piece of twin lead to your TV. If you are using a stereo with 300 ½ inputs use another piece of twin lead to feed the stereo. If it's a 12 Volt car radio you need a transformer (RS part#15-1140), AKA 4:1 balun to convert 300 ½ twin lead to 75 ½ TV coax. Crimp an "F" connector on one end and solder a Motorola antenna plug on the other end. You can't solder the aluminum foil shield to the outside of the plug, but you can solder the 4 steel wires. This system has given me all of the local translators and all the distant (Å100 mi.) TV stations. As for FM, it's my choice, anything within 150 miles is fair game. If this doesn't do the job for you, then use an antenna mounted pre-amp and 75 ½ coax. Radio Shack's mast mounted preamp (RS#15-1108) works well. If you use an ac powered (via the inverter) pre- amp and rotor, unplug them when not in use. Their transformers are always on. As an aside, the same can be said about some other "phantom loads" like instant on TV's and boom boxes - another electron saved! Weather Radios & Scanners Two other receivers that are nice to have around the homestead are weather radios and scanners. Weather radios let you stay on top of the latest forecast and road conditions and are inexpensive. This information can mean the difference between sitting by a warm fire or cooling your heels on a snowy mountain pass. Radio Shack has several weather radios that work well. A scanner is a very broad banded receiver that can quickly sample many frequencies. The least expensive are crystal controlled, a crystal for each frequency. The more expensive scanners use synthesized receivers and require no additional crystals. The top of the line models will search for active frequencies and store the information. The Bearcat BC145XL that I have needs to be programed with the frequency you want to listen to. I have a list of active frequencies from the local Radio Shack, which covers police, sheriff, fire, weather (NOAA), BLM, forestry, ham, etc. As with TV and FM, scanners need a good outside antenna to work their best. It should be as high as practical. Other Notes Jim Hale in Arkansas has a cordless telephone working 1/2 mile using TV antennas....sounded real good when I talked to him a few weeks ago. Speaking of telephones, I can be reached at 916-475-3401. It's the first phone I've had in almost 20 years. What fun! Or you can write me at POB 130, Hornbrook, CA 96044. 73's (Best Wishes), Brian Sources AES (Amateur Electronic Supply), Las Vegas, NV ¥ 1-800-634-6227, Milwaukee, WI ¥ 1-800-558-0411. A very good catalog, good prices on scanners, weather radios, scanner antennas, preamps and ham gear. Ham radio magazines are found in most libraries and book stores and are a wealth of info on antennas and feedlines. My favorite is "73" Magazine. Real Goods, Backwoods Solar Electric, and Alternative Energy Engineering have 12 Volt TV/FM pre-amps.