What roof or wall mounted antenna can you guys suggest that will dramtically enhance AM reception for a home stereo. I dont car if it has to be roof or or wall mounted outside the home.

If I recall corerctly there is a HAM band that covers the same spectrum as AM stations could I use an antenna from that?

SorryOciffer

run a wire from the stereo to your tinfoil hat?

NO WAY! I just want to hear the talk stations not be hard wired into "their" network of programed slaves! [:D]

SorryOciffer

If you're in a densely populated area (NYC) then signal strength isn't a problem, it's selectivity (rejecting unwanted stations). For that, a loop antenna is hard to beat (rotating the loop nulls out interfering stations). Radio Shack had a nice little model for ~$30, but I think it has been discontinued. Terk may have a decent model.

Another one to consider is the Justice antenna (from ccrane.com), not inexpensive (~$100) but reputed to have very good performance.

If you listen to mainly AM, you might want to consider what radio you are using. Most stereos have a cheap AM section. Perhaps the best bargain in AM radios is the GE Superadio III (~$40-50) which will easily outperform all but much higher priced dedicated receivers. Try [url]www.universal-radio.com[/url]

Thanks Merrel! I'm kinda rural but listen to stations as far away as 200-400 miles away.

SorryOciffer

If you're in the sticks, then the Justice antenna or the GE Superadio would probably give you quite an improvement (The CCRadio is a bit overrated, good but not noticeably better than the GE and $100 more to boot). You can always just try a wire (typically not good for urban areas because you'll pick up too much noise)

There are a couple of yahoo groups on antennas if you really want to dive into it,

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/longwaveradiolistening

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/loopantennas

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/indoorantennas

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SuperadioIII

I use this thing called "The real-good radio booster". It is made in here in Alaska. Basically it is some kind of coil with two leads. One goes to a ground, the other goes to an aerial. You then place it near the internal reciever on the radio. My aerial is about 100' feet long and I can listen to Sacramento. On a "skip" night the dial is full and you get many different languages. I don't know if there is anything like it available nationwide.

String up a dipole in your attic, or between two trees.

[img]http://www.qsl.net/aa0ni/dipole.gif[/img]

Don't worry about the lenght formula, it's only important if you're transmitting.

The longer, the better. AM is low in frequency, so the wavelength is very big.
arrange the legs of the dipole to be perpendicular to the radio station.

You can make one from some old flat-lead TV antenna feed line and scrap wire. each end should be insulated from what ever you are supporting it with. anything plastic would be fine. I've used zip ties.

Do a google search for home made dipole, you should get lots of ideas.

[img]http://www.ccrane.com/images/justice_antenna_300.gif[/img]
Justice AM Antenna, from [url=http://www.ccrane.com/justice_antenna.asp]C. Crane Co.[/url]

I haven't used one of these things since I was a kid.  You can make one easily.  Wrap about 100 turns of wire (get some magnet wire) on a 1"x2"x6" wood form.  Attach one end to a good ground (metal cold water pipe) and the other end to at least a 30 foot outside antenna.  Place wood form at the back of the radio where the ferrite antenna is located.  The signal will couple through the coil to the radio.


I used it with an All-American 5 TUBE radio in the 1960's from eastern PA to listen to Texas, Iowa, and once to Albuquerque.
You could buy the magnet wire from a motor repair shop, or do what I did as a kid and strip it from an old motor.

Lee/WJ0F

If your radio doesn't have an external AM antenna jack, rig up your own.

1)  Open the radio

2)  Locate the AM antenna (it will look like a short bar with thin wire wrapped around it.)

3)  Insert a length of 24 ga speaker wire (or similar) through the back of the radio housing, and wrap 3-4 turns around the AM antenna WITHOUT DAMAGING IT!

4)  Secure the loops with a bit of tape or somthing, and draw the remainder of the wire back through a hole in the housing.

5)  Reassemble the radio.

The result should be that you have a single wire entering the back of the radio, making a few turns around the ferrite antenna, and exiting again.

These two wire ends will become your external antenna jacks.

1 must be connected to a good ground.  The other can be connected to an antenna.

I have found that a simple long-wire antenna works great.  Simply stretch your antenna wire out away from your radio for at least 25'.

Make sure you are able to easily disconnect your radio from the antenna in case of lightning.


I did this with an old Sorny boombox that had a digital tuner, and am pretty happy with the results.  I receive stations as far away as WBZ in Boston to KOA in Denver at night.

Good results, on a dime budget.