ABSTRACT
This chapter provides antenna systems for frequency modulation (FM) radio broadcasting and attempts to provide a comprehensive review of the many factors that must be taken into consideration by broadcast engineers, technicians, and station managers when making decisions regarding these systems. It discusses the details concerning the design, selection and placement of FM broadcast antennas. The chapter reviews some propagation phenomena that have an impact on some of the design choices and tradeoffs. For analog FM broadcasting, a strong direct signal source is desired. When energy from two or more paths reaches the receiver (due to reflections), a condition called multipath reception occurs. An often neglected consideration in FM transmitting antenna location and height is Fresnel zone radius clearance in the path to the service area. Microwave engineers always make certain that their signal paths have this important clearance.
