Is this the end of my NAT05?

I have only used an old tv/fm antenna that is in my attic and it works pretty well. I'm located 20 miles north of NYC so there is a fairly strong signal. Reception did get noticeably worse when I plugged the antenna into the ir port at the rear of the nat 05. Since I did all the connections by memory and feel and did not realize there were two ports that could input a wire. Since I'm disabled, it makes it hard to get behind the equipment! My dealer fixed it when he was here to pick up my lp 12 and I mentioned the poor reception.

Jochen, Your thread needs Mike-B or Simon-in-Suffolk, quite possibly others. From one NAT05 guy to another, I hope you can resolve it.

Chris

I've now bought a simple indoor antenna, like the following

Let's see how it works.

It really depends on where you are in relation to your transmitter.
I have an omni directional aerial mounted on the roof and the reception on my NAT05 was truly abysmal. In many cases, dropping to mono, plus with hiss and distortion.
I had recently moved my system to a new room, one to where my multi-element, Ron Smith Galaxy aerial wasn't connected.
I eventually got around to re-configuring things so that the Galaxy does now connect to my NAT05.
The difference is UNBELIEVABLE.
Certainly in my case, an indoor aerial simply would not work.

Hi Jochen, sorry to hear of this. If your only option is an indoor antenna, try and set it up high up on the inside of an external  wall, with the dipole elements fully folded out and away from any electrical appliances. A spare bed room might be ideal. It will be a compromise, but if good signal strength it should work relatively well. Avoid signal boosters, as they simply boost the noise as well as the signal compromising the performance, especially stereo performance.

Thanks Simon, so I won't waste time and money with a booster then.

I think I'll build a kind of crucifix, attach the aerial to it and try it out in different places of the flat to find the best reception. 

I assume, ideally, the dipole elements have to be horizontal and perpendicular to the direction to the transmitter?

As it turns out, the crucial transmitter, the one with classical and jazz, is only 3km away, so I might not lose too much in reception quality.

jfritzen posted:

I assume, ideally, the dipole elements have to be horizontal and perpendicular to the direction to the transmitter?

As it turns out, the crucial transmitter, the one with classical and jazz, is only 3km away, so I might not lose too much in reception quality.

Yes, spot on.... and you are a lucky chappy, you should be fine if the transmitter is as close as that... just keep the indoor aerial well away from any noisy switched mode power supplies, home network components, Ethernet leads, xDSL broadband leads etc.

Simon, thanks for your help so far. Further good news is, I think, that the wall facing the transmitter is not obstructed by directly adjacent buildings and the flat is rather high (for my town), on the 3rd floor. There is hope for the NAT05.

Trying to find the best spot for the antenna feels a bit like water divining ...

Yes I can imaginewith out a signal strength meter... obviously the best way is with quiet low volume material perhaps with plenty of pauses. Ensure you are listening in stereo and listen to the pauses and soft music.. is the hiss very low and free from strange low level spurious sounds, or modulated noise... once found you have a good spot with low noise/interference.

The L-R element in a stereo FM signal is an AM frequency around a special type of suppressed carrier at 38kHz, and so is prone to interference from poor signal and noise, and this is why you notice more noise in stereo  if the receiving aerial is not optimum for a particular stereo station, but disappears in mono.

I think I found a good place for the antenna. There still is hiss but it's only audible when having the ear near the tweeter. Softer than my tinnitus, which is there anyway. FM sounds great again.

Most stations that are essential for me are covered by the antenna, only one comes from a different transmitter and would need an antenna with perpendicular directionality. If the NAT05 could switch between inputs, I'd install an additional antenna. But since this is not the case, Internet radio will have to suffice for this station.

I would have preferred if Vodafone hadn't discontinued FM in the first place. But who am I to complain, people need their 20 digital home shopping TV channels ...

Thanks all for the helpful comments.

Glad you got it sorted. As far as I aware the FM distribution would have been part of their analogue cable TV and radio infrastructure... and so has probably been retired as they have migrated to digital distribution... oh well some call it progress apparently....