is this BIC beam box worth keeping?
Bill Noble
antenna and this contraption called "The Beam Box by BIC" -
this box is a press-board box with a 4 position beam direction
switch (|/-\), marked "model FM6 electonically directable FM
antenna" - since there is no external power comming into it, I
am suspicious about the electronically steerable part of the
claim. Is this thing worth keeping, should I throw it away,
or should it go onto one of the forsale newsgroups. I seem
to be getting fine reception with the external antenna so I
guess right now I don't see a reason to hook it back up - in
fact the external antenna (a TV antenna) gives me far better
reception than this contraption ever did.
opinions, anyone?
Mark Howell
<william...@email.msn.com> wrote:
I've used a BeamBox in the past. I don't know the technical details
of how it works, but it is useful in environments where multipath and
an overcrowded FM band are problems. It's not intended for DX'ing.
A friend of mine and I have traded a BeamBox back and forth for years
as we moved to different residences. He has it now, as I'm in a
location where multipath is not much of a problem.
Mark Howell
Greg Dunn
: I just moved my tuner - I had kept it connected to an external
: antenna and this contraption called "The Beam Box by BIC" -
: this box is a press-board box with a 4 position beam direction
: switch (|/-\), marked "model FM6 electonically directable FM
: antenna" - since there is no external power comming into it, I
: am suspicious about the electronically steerable part of the
: claim.
Well, "steerable" is probably a bit strongly worded -- but you can
definitely "shape" the antenna's pattern with inductive or capacitive
loads hooked to the element, or by hooking the crossed elements in or
out of phase from each other. I have one of these, too, and my evaluation
is as follows:
1) The directional control is moderate but useful. Forget about using it
to pull in distant stations unless you're just trying to null an
interfering signal that swamps your tuner's front end.
2) The tuning control is very broad and might be useful to reduce spurious
images or out-of-band noise.
If it works, hang on to it. It's probably better than the average cheap
folded dipole, and certainly less cumbersome.
--
| Greg Dunn | I don't have low self-esteem. |
| greg...@indy.net | It's a mistake; I have low |
| greg...@aol.com | esteem for everybody else. |
| http://www.indy.net/~gregdunn/ | Daria |