Customer Reviews

Terk AF-9330 AM/FM Indoor Amplified Tower Antenna

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I was hoping to improve reception on a few stations , so I decided to replace the twin lead dipole (passive) antenna that came with my new tuner with the Terk Tower. I have the AM Advantage loop and that works fairly well, so I figured this powered antenna would be a lot better.

Well, bad reasoning. On FM, it doesn't work NEARLY as well as a 32" piece of plain old wire on any of my radio recievers. In some cases, stations that could be tuned reasonably well with *nothing at all* attached to the FM inputs, and no internal antenna, could no longer be received with the Terk Tower attached.

Those that could be tuned with the antenna attached had grotesque distortion. This despite turning the gain adjustment dial in either direction. It was functioning, as at low levels of gain, the station dropped off completely, and definitely changed as you moved it. So it wasn't just broken. I could get barely acceptable reception on a few stations with micro-fine adjustments of the dial. But even at best all stations had all sorts of fuzz and dropouts. You could turn it up enough to swamp the receiver ACG circuit, but the distortion never goes away as you turn it down the point of losing lock completely.

On AM, it doesn't make it worse, but it doesn't help, either. On all the weak stations I have tried, I simply can't tell the difference in the results. Once again, fiddling with the gain control changes it, but at maximum boost, it's pretty much what I was getting with the the teeny little loop antenna that bolts to the back of the tuner. At lower gain settings you just can't hear the station at all.

For all intents and purposes, it just doesn't seem to work, I tried it on 4 different tuners/radios in 4 different places in my house, and in every case it made the FM reception MUCH worse than the stock antennas, and AM reception no better than the stock or internal antennas. I'm probably going to break it open and try attaching different lengths of wire in place of the stock antenna, and see if that helps. But I get the impression that the booster amplifer just isn't up to the task of passing 107.7 MHz., and introduces too much distortion at FM freqencies. It almost has to be - because a plain old wire that length is MUCH better.

Even though it was pretty inexpensive, I was very disappointed with this antenna. You'll get FAR better reception with a bent coat hanger. And that's free with your dry cleaning.

(addendum - I finally broke my antenna open, and now it's clear why it doesn't work on AM any better than a stock antenna. It's because inside the tower, for AM, is a small, unamplified, loop antenna! It's not even connected to the circuitry. Which begs the question of why turning the dial affects the AM performance. I speculate that the AM loop and the FM amplifier are interfering with each other - and that the AM is getting into the FM amp, causing modulation at the FM subcarrier frequency, hence, really fuzzy FM reception - and also dragging energy out of the AM loop more or less depending on the FM amp setting. BTW, the FM antenna is a piece of bare copper wire running the length of the antenna. Short answer is still the same - it's junk, don't waste your money)

The only thing the Terk boosted was my credit card balance. It's really great if you plan to use it for a good game of ring toss or as a hat holder but as an electronic device, it's a joke

My father has one of these, and over the course of a recent move, I helped him reinstall his Bang & Olufsen stereo system. He was getting poor FM reception, so I connected his Terk antenna, but it didn't improve the signal. There was a lot of noise and distortion, and the receiver couldn't seem to get a lock on any local stations. I didn't understand the problem, and at first blamed the receiver. But I really couldn't believe a $5,000 piece of electronics could be that bad, even if it was 20 year old.

I moved the antenna, same reception. I changed the gain, same reception. I unplugged it from the wall, same reception. Finally, I disconnected the antenna entirely from the receiver, and the FM didn't get any worse. Well, that pretty much proves the thing is doing nothing aside from taking up living room space to me.

Well, it's my Dad's antenna and he got it a few years ago, so we're not getting a refund. I went and bought a simple wire dipola antenna from Radio Shack for $6 and at least it works.

If you want a noticable improvement in your FM reception, buy a good outdoor antenna from a real antenna company like ChannelMaster or Winegard, or save some money and buy a dipole indoor antenna for a few dollars. But don't get this Terk unless you want static and hiss out of your radio.

I bought this and returned it within 24 hours. I hooked this up to two different radios (Grundig, Boston) and tested it on AM stations that were weak in my area. There was absolutely no difference in reception with or without this attached. My future solution will be buying a house where I can put up a large outdoor loop antenna.

Don't buy this. I bought it to specifically pull in an AM station and I got better reception from the cheap little loop antenna that came with the stereo. Adjusting the gain dial did nothing. It's going back to the store tomorrow.

I might as well have thrown my money down the drain instead of wasting it on this piece of trash!! It does absolutely nothing. Bought a good amp/receiver and wanted an antenna with it. Don't try to go cheap as I did, but buy something that works (I'm still looking myself... any advise?)

[] This powered antenna helps boosts reception of AM/FM radio stations. Installation was a snap, and Terk includes all the accessories you need to connect the antenna to your tuner. The gain control is on the antenna itself, and is useful for improving the clarity of some stations. I recommend this antenna for those who would like an inexpensive way of improving their radio reception.

This is a good, reasonably priced antenna for pulling in weak or distant FM stations. I have one at home and one at work, both attached to Proton RS-330 radios. The Terk AM Advantage is better for AM stations, but the tower is OK if that's the only antenna you buy.

Roz

I had this for over a year and it is useless...you'd be better off just using speaker wire.

Wish I would have read the reviews first. As someone else stated, this antenna is worse on FM than a cheap twin wire dipole. A local and powerful FM station that I can get just fine in my basement with a shower radio, would not come in on my upstairs stereo with this antenna. Waste of money!