I've had good reception with this antenna from 50 miles away.
Works best if you put it outside.
It's only $25 on eBay.
It is a total thing for hobbyist to try to receive broadcast signals from distant cities.
When it was analog tv it was simple for TV and for FM, it still is simple. The process is call "DXing"
You need to live where there is no Home Owner Association. You put up a tower with an antenna rotator. Around 20 to 50 feet. You then mount an antenna type called "Log Periodical". You may have also connected an amplifier made for the purpose to boost the signals...This antenna is very directional...you would use the rotator to turn the antenna while watching the signal fade in and out and determine the best direction to aim it. It was fairly simple in Houston to watch the Beaumont, Austin and Victoria Stations...Good conDitions would get Dallas.
This would work by the process of "Tropospheric Scatter"...Imagine you are driving in the Hill County at night on a two lane highway...You are driving up a hill...and you can totally see the headlight from an oncoming car on the other side of the hill. The air molecules scatter the light to over the hill where you see it...The Part of the air called the Troposphere does the same thing to the radio waves that are TV and FM radio signals, with the curve of the Earth being the "hill"....With a highly directional antenna and if needed, an amplifier, you can "see" the radio waves from over the horizon. This is also how the "White Alice Stations" up in the Arctic worked.
When TV went digital it became harder because you can't conveniently monitor the signal condition. Your TV either works with the signal...or it doesn't. In theory you could use a receiver and use instruments to monitor the distant signal and tweek the aiming to improve you chance of getting it to work.
FM is still analog and is easy as pie to play with...once you put up the tower, rotator,, and antenna. Guys I know who play with this in Corpus Christi pick up Houston FM Stations easily.
