VHF aerial

Place holder for material remove from the TV aerial article.

Using a TV aerial

TV aerials don't make good VHF FM aerials, but they're often much better than internal VHF antennas, telescopic rods, or the popular rabbit's ears. If you've decided not to spend the money on a separate VHF aerial, in some cases you can get a real improvement in FM reception by using a diplexer at the radio to split off any VHF received by the TV aerial and pass it to the radio.

A metal diplexer only costs 2 or 3 pounds. Avoid £1 unscreened plastic diplexers, these let interference into the aerial system, affecting digital reception.

Avoid using a splitter instead of a diplexer, as these cause an extra 3-4dB loss, often degrading reception.

Some TV aerials are designed to give VHF recption as well as UHF. These give significantly better VHF reception than the ones that aren't, though they're still far from perfect. A dedicated VHF aerial will always outperform a UHF aerial with VHF reception, but adds costs of course.