Using Cable for FM antenna?

Factual Questions
1

Is this a good idea? Are there drawbacks?
The cheesy T-strap wire antenna that comes with my home theatre system doesn’t work too well. The system is located in the basement.
Would you use a 300-75 Ohm converter to go from cable to wire?

Thanks in advance.

2

Coaxial cable? Using a cable that is designed to shield from outside interference would probably be the worst choice for an antenna. Just a thought.

3

You can use coax to go from your receiver to your antenna. Most receivers I have seen in recent decades already have a coax connector of some form (even if it’s a bare wire rather than screw connector) so you shouldn’t need an adapter there. You will still need one on the antenna end. Note that there is a lot of reduction in signal strength with coax. (Twin lead, like your T-antenna, has less loss, but more interference than coax.) So keep the run short.

4

Were you perhaps asking if you could use your Cable TV feed as an FM antenna? If so, you can try it. Your cable company may or may not carry FM signals. Mine does not, but the company I used when I was in upstate New York did.

5

My stereo happens to have a cable (F connector) input in addition to antenna screws. YMMV. If yours has one, use it. If yours doesn’t have one, then a simple adapter available at radio shack, k-mart, walmart, etc. will do the trick.

One of two things will happen. Either you will get really really good reception, or you’ll get really really bad reception. TV cable, even though it is shielded, often picks up FM radio signals fairly well. In many places the cable company will intentionally broadcast FM radio stations down the cable, so you may find a wide variety of stations available.

However, since the FM radio band happens to be close to one of the TV broadcast channels (channel 7, IIRC) some cable companies intentionally filter off the FM radio band (and all the other non-TV frequency allocations around it) to prevent interference to the video signals. If this is the case with your cable company then you won’t get squat.

6

Cable companies sometimes use FM traps to give the best tv signal, but no damage will occur if you hook it up and try.