Customer Reviews

Terk FM-50 Indoor/Outdoor Dual-Drive Amplified FM Antenna (Terk FM50)

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I have a Yamaha HTR-5750 receiver which I was using with a Radio Shack FM amplified antenna. I had tried various ways of improving my FM reception including the classic 300 ohm twin lead folded dipole antenna. The rabbit ear setup helped but still did not yield satisfactory results. I still had difficulties receiving some nearby FM stations that were considered moderate strength stations.

I installed the TERK FM-50 inside my home hiding it behind a curtain valance. I did use the amplifier mode and was able to receive all of the FM radio sources listed on the web at the "radio-locator" service, some as far away as 30 miles. I was able to receive all of the radio stations in stereo mode with no evidence of noise. Previously I was unable to receive some of the stations even in non-stereo mode and several of the stations had objectionable noise content in the stereo mode. The stations range from very strong to very weak. I was able to pull one station rated as very weak from 22 miles.

Given my experience, I would highly recommend the TERK FM-50. It was a very simple installation. Since the actual antenna is protected by an outside casing, I was able to use the assembly in contact with drapery material with no significant degradation in performance. I appreciated the technical performance of the antenna and my wife appreciated the fact that I was able to completely hide it.

This antenna works very well for weak FM reception. I find that for best performance you must move the antenna to its "sweet spot" to pinpoint the best location for optimal reception. All of the stations that used to be filled with static are now recieved without hiss or static. There is one weak FM station about 45 miles south of me that I wanted to recieve without static. This antenna fits the bill. Prior to using it the station had so much interference that my new Onkyo reciever (HT-R540) wouldn't even pick it up. Now the reception isn't quite perfect, but it's very good. I find the amplifier to not be so helpful in my location. This is fine as simply using it as a passive (i.e. non-amplified) antenna yields very good results.

As a side note: Remember that you'll have to procure your own antenna lead in cable. I got a gold plated twelve foot cable from the local dollar store. (To make sure you have a good, shielded lead in cable simply connect the cable to your reciever without the antenna. If your lead in cable is okay it won't aid in the reception of signals at all on its own. This is because if it is a proper shielded cable the signals won't penetrate the shielding around the actual antenna lead in.) When you connect the new antenna your reciever should now seemingly jump to life with signals jumping dramatically in signal strength and quality.

Radio reception in my apartment is terrible. I have purchased a few indoor antennas, even a different Terk model, but none of them helped very much. I had to move the antenna around to different areas for different stations, and my digital FM radio only received one digital channel.

This unit, however, works great. I get every station I want, and the digital FM works great. The only thing I would mention is that the antenna casing is bulky, so if you're concerned about asthetics you'll have to figure out where you can conceal it. Also, I didn't get any additional benefit from the amplifier, but the antenna worked so well that I didn't need it.

The first unit I received worked exactly the same with the internal high-gain amplifier turned on or off. Checked the connections, power supply, etc. but it appeared that the amplifier just wasn't working. I returned the unit to the vendor and received a new unit. This one showed a noticeable improvement in reception of weaker stations when the amplifier was switched on. One odd thing about the antenna was that it appeared to work much better (at least with my receiver) when using the supplied coax-to-twin-lead adapter instead of connecting directly to the coax.

After some time (> 1 year), I installed a new receiver and connected the antenna to it. I setup the radio station presets and then noticed I'd forgotten to connect the antenna amplifier power supply. When I plugged it in and turned on the amplifier, no difference at all. After testing and checking the connections, still no difference. The antenna does work but does NOT add any active amplification of weak signals so, essentially, it is now a $70 dipole antenna (which can be built or bought for under $10).

In the interest of full disclosure, I have never used this antenna, and I am writing this because none of the other people who have written a review have bothered to properly test it against a standard folded dipole antenna. To do such a test properly, you would need to place both antennae in the exact same location and orientation, not at the same time of course. Terk makes a lot of antennae that include built-in amplifiers, and on the packaging they quote the antenna gain, not the gain of the antenna itself. This is wrong and misleading. Common sense should tell you that if an amplifier could make up for a poor signal coming from the antenna itself, you could turn any crummy antenna into an excellent antenna simply by adding amplification. Unfortunately, it does not work that way. What matters to the receiver is not the absolute strength of the signal, but rather the signal-to-noise ratio. The only way that it is possible for an amplifier located at the antenna to improve the result is if the amount of noise that is being picked up in the transmission line between the antenna and the receiver is greater than the amount of noised added to the signal within that same amplifier. When the transmission line is long, the signal will experience attenuation, and in this case it can make sense to boost the signal at the antenna, the effect of which will be to keep the absolute strength of the signal high relative to the level of noise picked up along the transmission line. Thus, if the amplifier is doing anything at all in a typical home setup, it is only compensating for a transmission line that does not do a good job of shielding the signal from noise. It is therefore no surprise that several people who have experimented with turning off the amplifier have reported that the amplifier does not seem to do anything. The common folded dipole that you buy at Radio Snack or elsewhere uses 300-ohm flat lead transmission wire, which is not particularly good at protecting the signal from noise. Coaxial wire is inordinately superior. People who are reporting good results with this antenna might well get equivalent results with a $5 folded dipole but using two 300-Ohm / 75-Ohm adapters, one located right at the antenna and the other at the receiver so that shielded coax can be used over the distance that separates the antenna from the receiver. In all likelihood, the true reason that this antenna is giving many people better results than a cheap folded dipole, has nothing to do with the built-in amplifier, but is due to the use of coaxial transmission line.

We have a HD antenna in our attic that pulls in OTA HDTV signals with no problem but amazingly, it doesn't get any decent reception of FM signals. Despite the fact that our favorite radio station is riddled with seemingly constant commercials from some car dealer in PA, we still like to listen.

Their evening programming is especially good and when we found it impossible to tune with our attic antenna we took the next step into the Terk unit. At $70 bucks, this thing had to be good or I was returning like greased lightning.

After two days of ownership and nearly 20 hours are play, the tuner has kept a strong signal locked in non-stop. It's a keeper. I'd give it 5 stars if it wasn't so expensive.

I installed this antenna in my Pawn Shop where we keep most of our electronics running all day. I could never get good reception with standard antennas and now this single antenna does the job better than any I have ever seen. Keep in mind that I have a full surveillance systen, alarm syster, phone system, 20 home stereos, a dozen or more computers and on and on. The Terk FM-50 has exceeded my expectations. Thanks, Joel DBA Pawn-Plus.

I am very glad to have laid out the cash for this antenna. I live in a real hilly area and have aluminum siding on my home(which blocks all indoor antennas from being clear powered, so getting stations on FM has been a pain for 10 years. I Googled this antenna, bought it and threw it up in my atic. We couldn, believe the stations we pulled in that were really clear sounding!

I recently acquired an HD radio in my home and needed better, more consistent reception for all the stations. This unit really does the job, certainly much better than a standard dipole wire. Living in a condo means that I cannot have an outside antenna, but it worked pretty well by placing the unit across the inside of a window or sliding glass door. I have not used the included RF signal amplifier with the antenna because I have not needed it so far. I would say that this unit is well worth the money if you are condo dweller or do not wish to put up an outside antenna.

I have found this antenna of very little help at all with HD radio signals on my Sangean HDT-1X. The amplifier does absoulutely nothing. As is the case with most amplified antennas. The noise created by the amp somtimes causes interference. I am an experienced tech who does install low voltage system for a living and have done so since 1980. I have this up high in attic and I get pretty good reception I do not get the vast majority of NYC HD stations. I do live a good distance away from NYC in NJ approx. 60 miles. Depending on the area you live and distance from towers I would say to take that into consideration, and if possible go to an outdoor if possible which will give the best reception. The key as with any antenna is height, and good quality cable use RG6 or better.