AM/FM Booster Antenna. Worth it?

[Cobez]

Gday all! Considering an AM/FM antenna for my bullbar for when im out country. (not one of those bloody 2M high ones, looking at a 90cm spring base). But before i fork out $125 for it i wanted to know if anyone had / has one and are they worth the gain for purchase?

Have heard mixed reports on them. Hate changing CD's when doing 110km's on the highways and i dont use my phone to change songs either so id prefer to leave the radio on.

 

[Mitchie56]

What kind of range do you want out of your Squawker?

 

[Mitchie56]

Sorry and what Freq would you normally use?

 

[Cobez]

Not 100% sure on all this frequency stuff, i bought an ZCG am/fm antenna today. Just want more range on fm when i head out country areas. It loses reception quick (the factory antenna).

 

[Mitchie56]

Should be pretty good using uhf freqs. Higher the freq smaller the antenna.

 

[Cobez]

Sweet. They are pretty reputable antennas from the reviews i have read. And Australian made which is always good.

 

[Old.Tony]

The problem with higher frequency transmissions (eg FM radio vs AM radio) is that they're more line-of-sight than the lower frequency transmissions. This means that once the curvature of the earth starts getting involved (30-40km) it's all downhill. Taller antennae help on both sides.

Have you considered an iPod/iTouch/iPhone, or a 32Gb SD card (available at Aldi for about $25 at the moment) ?

 

[Malicious]

Not 100% sure on all this frequency stuff, i bought an ZCG am/fm antenna today. Just want more range on fm when i head out country areas. It loses reception quick (the factory antenna).

FM band is 88 to 108mhz so a quarter wave antenna is about 70ish cm long
AM is about .5mhz to 1.6mhz so a quarter is about 70m long,
UHF CB is 477mhz and 1/4 wave antenna is about 15cm
so it is easier to get more gain from higher frequency antennas due to being able to stack elements with phasing coils, for example look at the common UHF stainless whip which has that spring bit in the middle , the spring is a phasing coil the section below is a 1/4 wave and bit above is a 5/8wave gives you about 4.5dB gain.
so most likely totally useless info for you .
it's possible that the current antenna has an active booster in it to increase gain , like a tv masthead amp , which with a bit of work you could connect to your new antenna, or just put an inline booster in with the new antenna.

which model antenna from ZCG did you get?

 

[Tappet]

Don't know much about the booster (antenna per-amplifier) I do think the factory radio is a bit deaf. FM not much chop and AM no better. Like yourself I to like the radio on long drives. At 125 dollars it would want to be good. Most I have seen are just crappy inexpensive inline things. That looks like they plug in close to the radio. I do know the closer you mount them to the antenna the better they work. One thing with the boosters they increase the signal but along with it they increase the noise. With radios, in the specs. you will often see a Signal to Noise ratio, (S/N) expressed in dB the higher number the better. uV will be the sensitivity the lower the figure the better. The selectivity the ability to "pull in" a weak signal along side a stronger one also expressed in dB, the higher the number the better. Hope this helps.