AI talked me through making a do it yourself dipole antenna for FM radio.

AI can be a help for do it yourself projects. I recently made an FM dipole antenna out of lamp cord, a fiberglass rod I had, some tape and alligator clips. This significantly improves my FM radio reception.

Some folks would wonder why I don't just listen over the internet. I do that also, but I enjoy the old art of DXing stations. People who go fishing at a stream enjoy doing that versus just buying fish at a supermarket. Ironically, AI has helped me figure out a way to reduce dependency on the internet for radio reception. Sometimes I use radio as white noise for sleep, but I feel guilty using bandwidth through the internet if I'm just sleeping to it.

It's not a fishing pole, but I got fiberglass pole way back in 1979 when poles with red flags were a popular safety feature on bicycles.

A dipole is made from two wires going in the opposite directions held straight by the pole. The wires meet at the center, but they don't connect. Then they both form the feedline to a nearby radio. I did not separate that part of the lamp cord.

The two sides of the dipole are a certain length to resonate with the frequency of FM station on the part of the dial I am aiming for. It's the right size to pick up the whole dial of stations, but can be aimed to any one station for best results. Works well for the whole dial, especially if the station one is aiming at is toward the middle of the dial.

If the radio does not have two antenna terminals, such only having a single whip antenna, instructions say to connect one wire to the whip antenna. The other wire clips to some part of the radio that goes to the chassis ground. A terminal for the battery works. The radio is plugged into an adapter for power so no batteries are in the way. Alligator clips work well.

My fiberglass pole was photographed in the Bellingham Herald with another use back in 1979.