Albert's Attic Gallery

When stereo radio broadcasts started in the mid 1960s there was quite a boom in the sales of VHF FM aerials. Stereo needed a much stronger signal, and some of the tuners on the market were really very insensitive. There was also a significant ‘silly market’, with customers demanding huge FM aerials even in locations where signals were very strong.

The FM4S aerial was optimised for the Radio 3 frequency in each area, since Radio 3 was the only source of stereo. The FM6S had more bandwidth, but still exploited the fact that only the lower part of the FM was actually in use. Of course it wasn’t long before the upper part of the band was freed for broadcast use. The smaller the bandwidth of a yagi the higher the gain will be, all other things being equal.

Hi-Fi News review of the FM4S [PDF]

Thanks to Roger Piper for these contributions.

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