Check my Rusty FM antenna

I have checked my FM outdoor antenna on the roof because of not good reception of my SONY FM/AM tuner ST-SA5ES with a 30dB FM booster. My Yagi FM antenna has 3 elements made by MASPRO, one of the famous broadcasting reception antenna brands in Japan, and was installed 20 years ago

The heavy pole made of steel and the FM antenna that have been exposed by wind and water got rusty deeply.

Each part of the antenna is rusted.

Hey, this deep red rust seems like an ancient some part.

A bottle for fixing the cable has been folded suddenly when I tried to unscrew the butterfly nut.

The cable in the radiator has screwed off from the driven element as the fixed part made of plastic in the radiator was folded. That is a reason why I came across a bad FM feeling.

Next I looked into the booster unit that was installed on the roof.

When I opened the box, then, the outer case has been torn at the connection point and broken in the end.

Furthermore, brown liquid was leaked from the electrolytic capacitors on the circuit board.

After all I decided to remove the antenna and the booster as I found the plastic part in the radiator of the antenna folded, crushing the case of the booster.

I will replace and reinstall new FM antenna.

Pirate Radio on 1206kHz?

This morning I came across a strange pattern noise or sound on the MW band.

The radio wave must have been strong as even my YAESU VX-8D amateur radio could be received. Now China and Taiwan broadcast on 1206kHz near my country. In short, I might have received either Radio Taiwan International or Yanbian People's Broadcasting Station.

A legend radio Sony ICF-2010(ICF-2001D) and Sangean ATS-909X can also be received. This is not an internal spurious noise.

I recorded the sound, here.

The strange noise is such as short repeated sound generated by scratches of the CD. This broadcasting station may not manage their owned CDs properly. Intentionally or unintentionally, the scratched CD sound must have been on the air as a result.


The noise or sound has been continued more than 30min. At 5:30 JST(at 20:30 UTC, October 7th) the noise or sound has been faded out then new musics with clear sound has started instead.

Although I doubt the medium wave a Chinese or a North Korean pirate radio for the first time I heard, at last I found the medium wave Yanbian People's Broadcasting Station spoken to Korean language.

That was an interesting broadcasting accident.