MAGNUM DYNALAB - ST-2 FM Antenna

I have a Denon receiver that I have struggled with to find an FM antenna that provided decent reception. The simple wire supplied with the Denon was in a word, useless. I could not get any stations using that. I then purchased a custom tunable indoor "rabbit ear" FM antenna that while a bit better, only allowed me to receive a few relatively close-by local stations. Living in the NYC metro area (I'm only about 20 miles outside of the city), I could not receive any of the NYC stations. After some additional research, I purchased a relatively expensive ($50) dipole antenna that was guaranteed to pull in the weakest station. Sadly, its reception was worse than the rabbit ear. In desperation, I did quite a bit of research and came across the Magnum Dynalab ST-2 antenna. All I am going to say is - What a dramatic difference! Even with the antenna inside, I was suddenly getting stations I knew were out there that I never could receive before - now in full, glorious stereo sound. While I don't have a chimney mast, what I did end up doing is mounting the Dynalab ST-2 outside using the supplied mount and some industrial strength Velcro, fastening it to the outside window frame with the Velcro. Not only did that hold, but the reception also improved dramatically. Is the the Dynalab ST-2 worth it? Yes, absolutely. It was worth every penny. It's impeccably constructed, weather resistant and came with 25 ft. of coax cable. The improvement in reception with this antenna is night and day. I highly recommend this unit if you are struggling with FM reception for your home receiver or home theater unit. I am totally pleased with this purchase.

While some are disappointed with this antenna, I have great success with it. I place my antenna in the attic of a 2-story house and run nearly 100 feet of RG-6 cable before feeding my FM tuner. I have also tried standard dipoles and Winegard's well-reviewed HD-6010. The ST-2 outperforms both in my setup. This seems counterintuitive to me since a vertical oriented half-wave monopole is theoretically inferior to a horizontal (and properly oriented) dipole. I suspect the advantage I am benefiting from is the coupling between the antenna whip and the RG-6 terminal at the base of ST-2. Whatever is in that tiny canister is providing good signal transmission from the antenna to my tuner. The other possibility is that the Winegard's may be picking up more multipath signal than the ST-2. I do also use Magnum Dynalab's excellent "FM Signal Sleuth", but only for the weaker (college) stations in the area, and the combination is working well for me. For the techies, my setup is as follows: - ST-2 in the attic (hung upside down, but should not matter) - ~100-ft RG-6 with 3 couplers along the way - Magnum Dynalab 205 FM Signal Sleuth - Rotel RT-950BX AM/FM Tuner - Yamaha T-2 FM Tuner

This antenna works very well for me. Installed it in the attic & picked up local stations well here in the Denver area using a 25 foot cable. (Except for one that I will list later) Had trouble picking up a station from Ft. Collins - a city 40 miles away. After several moves with the antenna, found the one spot in the attic where the station comes in clearly. I believe this FM station in Ft. Collins broadcasts only 17,000 watts. I can now pick up clearly a country station from Cheyenne, Wyoming that is 100 miles away. They broadcast a max of 100,000 watts. One local Denver station comes in a bit fuzzy...but they have a low power transmitter. I could move the antenna around to bring it in better (which I did at first) but I would not be able to receive the Ft. Collins station very well doing that. Overall, a very impressive antenna. Not a good antenna for the roof, in my opinion. Too flexible...would whip around in the wind a lot. I tried 2 other FM antennas before finding the Magnum Dynalab ST-2. First one I tried was the FM loop antenna with dimensions 22x22x5". Great for local stations, but would not pick up stations 40 miles away or farther. Also tried the Terk Dual Drive Amplified Indoor/outdoor antenna. Picked up stations from 40 to 100 miles away...but with a lot of noise. (Stattic/fuzzy) Could not find the perfect position for all of the stations that I wanted to receive. A powered antenna seems to work a bit iffy anyway. The Magnum works the best for me. I live in a suburb of Denver (Westminster) that is very high in elevation...but still seem to have FM issues with not getting some signals very clearly. The Magnum has cleared up most of these issues for me. Don't forget, the area the antenna is posted in is critical. It didn't work that well for me until I moved it around. Took about a half hour or so. It's worth giving it a try.