AM radio static

[scriven]

Can anyone here tell my why I can sit in my car in the driveway and clearly pick up a multitude of AM radio stations but when I try to get anything on any number of tuners or receivers I have around the house what I get is mostly static?

Follow-up question:

Does anyone know of a good AM antenna? (Commercial or DIY)

Thanks in advance.

[DRBILL]

In my childhood "DX AM" listening, nothing seemed to beat 100' of stranded #16 copper wire to a porcelain insulator up the closest tree to my bedroom window. The point is to get the antenna as far away from house wiring as possible (e.g. your car radio). If your receiver has a connection for AM radio and also a ground connection, get a ground rod fom RS and pound it into the earth near to entrance for your antenna wire. Don't forget to provide lightning protection (and it isn't a bad idea to remove the antenna from the receiver when not in use).

Try not to have the receiver on the same curcuit as florescent lamps as they are the worst offenders in terms of AM noise.

Hope this helps.

DR BILL

ADDENDA: I just checked the RS on-line catalog. Check out 278-758 ANTENNA KIT @ $10.49. This should solve your problem nicely.

DB

[JJkizak]

Possible scenarios:

1. All of the tuners and receivers in the house are bad

2. All of the tuners and receivers in the house do not have an antenna

3. The house is in a temporal anomoly

Hook a length of wire from one terminal to the other, whatever is laying

around the house on one of the receivers. You will then have many stations.

JJK

[Mark Hardy]

Many (most) component AM tuners are pretty nominal at best. Good ol' 1950's tube radios will run rings around most massmarket stuff from the late 1970's on. (Obviously I am generalizing brutally here). I have some very "hot" and even good sounding "table radios" from the 1970's (yes, solid state, and oh-so-not-high-end): Panasonic, Sony, Zenith, and others.

But as has already been said: a good antenna can make all the difference in the world with a mediocre receiver. If you don't have the space or the inclination to go with a long wire, a tuned AM loop antenna is a good compromise: You can buy one (e.g., the "Select-A-Tenna", sold by C. Crane online and elsewhere) or you can make one (google "AM loop antenna" and see what you can find). I do some AM DXing in the wintertime and have used a Select-A-Tenna to good advantage. Here's an example: http://www.dxzone.com/cgi-bin/dir/jump2.cgi?ID=4167

Another interesting antenna topology (which I cannot vouch for but seems interesting in principle) is one that's grounded to the electric wave but responds to the magnetic wave. Ramsey Electronics sells one as a kit, but as I say I've never used one. http://www.ramseyelectronics.com/cgi-bin/commerce.exe?preadd=action&key=SM100

[scriven]

Thanks guys!

[djk]

Good AM receivers have a limiter circuit, most home stereos do not.

At one time this was a patented circuit and many manufacturers were too cheap to pay royalties, now they are just too cheap to add the few pennies worth of extra parts. AM seems to be an after-thought for most home stereo receivers.

[WMcD]

I suspect that at least part of the problem may be that the house is serving as a shield.

This apparently was not much of a problem in the old days when everything was made of wood and plaster. Now there are aluminum studs and aluminum siding. Of course I can't speak for your dwelling.

From childhood, it seems that old tube radios with just a loop antennae in the back didn't have any problems in old houses. And there were not the noisy florescent lamps, computers, and SCR dimmers.

I agree that some sort of outdoor antenna may be the only solution.

Best,

Gil

[lynnm]

It has been my experience that the AM tuning sections of MOST receivers and/or tuners,whether older or newer,are very poor. As suggested above a decent external antenna will help but unfortunately most AM sections in receivers were/are a "selling feature" and little or no attention was/is paid to making them any better than,( or even as good as),what would be typically be found in a decent car radio or transistor radio.

Presumably the designers believed that no serious audifool was/is interested in radio broadcast other than what was available on the FM band and the AM section of the tuner is therefore a place where a dollar or three per unit could be shaved.

There are exceptions to the above but they are few and far between.

That said,here in Canada we have the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation which is a government funded broadcaster whose signal strength and sound quality is superb in most areas of the country. The CBC has been around since the earliest days of public broadcasting and one can usually identify a CBC station simply by tuning across the dial and stopping at the station that sounds best. Ninety times out of one hundred that will be the CBC.

I have listened on occasion to your NPR stations and have been impressed with the sound quality. Do they broadcast in both AM and FM ?

[dragonfyr]

The wiring in a building acts as a source of inducted impulse noise, as well as the grounded components (piping, frameing, etc) forming a very lousy Faraday cage all contribute to poor reception and noise.

Conversely, the vehicle itself will act as a minor sympathetic antenna.

It is the same for cell phones! I can't make a call from inside my house! And I must go sit in my vehicle and take advantage of the additional gain the vehicle provides.

Haven't many of you have experienced (or NOT experienced!) AM reception inside a grounded steel frame office building or the steel framed/skinned military hangars and quonset huts?

NPR is primarily FM

[lynnm]

Danke!

[scriven]

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On 6/14/2005 9:22:21 PM dragonfyr wrote:

..

NPR is primarily FM

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But ball games are primarily AM!