Customer Reviews

Terk Amplified Indoor AM/FM Antenna (PIB)

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

 

 

I live in what is called a "fringe area" on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. We have a handful of local FM stations, but the best radio is just 50-90 miles north in Hampton Roads, VA. FM stations that come in well on your car stereo from these areas never seem to make into office and home stereo systems.

The TERK promises to amplify a signal if it's present. I live in a 3 story wood frame house, on top of a 30 ft sand dune, so altitude should be excellent for this type of antenna.The wood frame house should not block FM signals. No dice. 50 kw FM atations 40 miles north (Hertford, NC) and south (Englehard, NC) came in no better on the TERK than on a typical factory supplied dipole. 100KWer's in Tidewater such as WMYK (93.7), with a 1000 ft tower 50 miles north are barely registering on my Sony tuner. These stations come in fine on my Bose Wave and assorted portables. High end systems lack the "sensitivity" of smaller radios when it comes to boosting FM signals, and the TERK can't seem to overcome that problem.

My advice? If you want a solid signal for your high end system, and you live in a fringe area, go with either an outdoor TV antenna, or if possible, mount one in your attic. The FM radio band in wedged right between TV channels 6 and 7, so any outdoor TV antenna will do the trick. If you are confined to an apartment, I have no advice other than "save your money" and try other alternatives.

I got this to replace my old venerable Terk AF-1 predecessor, but this doesn't even come close. This won't even pick up two of the stations I listen to regularly. Why do they even sell this?

Connecting the signal amplifier added background hiss--and it still didn't work as well as rabbit ears I got at a 99-cent store.

This is worse than no antenna. I have one of the most sensitive FM receivers in the business, a Tivoli Model Two, which has discrete components in the FM front end.

The station I listen to is KUSC-FM which is 91.5. I am some 30 miles from the transmitter on a mountain peak near Mt. Wilson. I should be able to snag that station with full quieting.

The antenna connection to the dongel which both supplies power and provides the connection to the antenna lead is totally unsheilded. This allows the stupid thing to pick up all sorts of noise from my computers in my office. That's the reason why I bought an external antenna in the first place, to get the antenna away from the RF of my computers. Furthermore, when I follow instructions and fold the AM loop down so that the red LED turns on, it splatters noise across the FM band.

The PI-B not only doesn't work, it actually makes things considerably worse than the built-in antenna in the radio.

Save your money. Either get an inexpensive dipole from Radio Shack. Or, find somebody that sells the Fanfare FM2G (or Fanfare FM2G-C).

The price paid for this product is a waste. As some other reviews have stated, a coat hangar would probably be just as good. No matter where I move the antenna or adjust the gain, the reception is awful! I have a Technics audio receiver and the AM/FM is useless to me at this time. I have a table radio (Boston Acoustics) that runs circles around my aided TERK antenna reception. Where does TERK get the idea or proof that their indoor anennas improve reception? It may be that the ony good antenna is an outdoor antenna.

Made absolutely no difference vs. the factory supplied antenna. In fact once I moved the factory supplied wire a bit, the reception was better than with this product. If I could have given it 0 stars I would have, since it is not worth one star.

I have two of these and I make sure that they are clear of any other wiring near the loop. The gain has to be adjusted to signal strength and depending upon where the station you are tuning into is located, the gain may have to be adjusted. One is attached to a Yamaha receiver that is 12 years old and the other is attached to a Yamaha HTR-6090 7.1-Channel Digital Home Theater Receiver. I get good quality on both. I don't know how or in what way the other raters were using theirs or if they had defective units, but I can say that my experience has been very good with this antenna.

Attached to my Sony HD and powered it up. Stations that had been linking up just fine, dropped out. Tried different positions and gain settings, but no dice.

Looks as if Terk is selling something that looks good, but doesn't perform.

Save your money folks. This product may work perfectly in the lab, but it's useless in a more 'ordinary' environment. I was actually able to get better recption by creating a 3 foot loop of heavy gauge copper wire (AM). Still haven't figured out what to do to improve FM, but that was the whole thrust behind the Terk.

I was really hoping this would do the job. I recently moved the location of my stereo and the wire antenna did not get my favorite radio station from the new location. The signal faded in and out with tons of static, so I thought this would magnify it enough....but not even close. Maybe the other wires nearby caused interference, but come on...how can you turn off your entire system so they do not interfere?!?!?! This is going back....and regardless of what the guy at Best Buy told me, I now know why there where so many open box amplified antenna's available.