Is there such a thing as a GOOD home stereo AM antenna?

[Ken B]

Hello,

I am looking for an antenna design for a home stereo AM antenna. I have tried the circular coil of wire type and a few others, but I can't find one that works. In my car I can pick up this certain station that I want, by times, but in my home, I can't get it at all. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Ken b

 

[zevon8]

You could do an antenna designed specifically for the station you want, or try one of the amplified antennas you see at the stereo shops.

I am not sure where you live, but one thing many people don't realize about commercial AM transmitters, is that in many locations around the world they drastically reduce their output power at night. Sometimes the antenna radiation pattern is also changed to reduce interference caused by "skip" , which is more effective at night.

This can sometimes explain why distant stations can be heard during the day but not at night.

Maybe you are in the car during the day and at home at night?

For example, one station I listen to transmits with 10,000 Watts during the day, but only 2,500 at night.

more info from the FCC ( USA ):

https://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/bickel/daytime.html

 

[pebe]

Hello,

I am looking for an antenna design for a home stereo AM antenna. I have tried the circular coil of wire type and a few others, but I can't find one that works. In my car I can pick up this certain station that I want, by times, but in my home, I can't get it at all. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Ken b

You can get stereo on the AM bands?

 

[monkeytree]

i dont think he means you can get stereo AM.i think he means he wants the antena for his stereo system(hi-fi,radio,sound system,music system)or anyting else that it may be called :twisted:

 

[JimB]

I assume that you are trying to receive a medium wave station on a mains powered "hi-fi" receiver.

As a quick generalisation the AM circuits in these type of equipments are crap.

The best thing I can suggest is maybe an amplified ferrite rod or multi-turn loop antenna (large).
Try googling for "medium wave antenna". There are those who specialise in receiving long distance medium wave stations, there should be plenty of info out there.

JimB

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I am looking for an antenna design for a home stereo AM antenna. I have tried the circular coil of wire type and a few others, but I can't find one that works. In my car I can pick up this certain station that I want, by times, but in my home, I can't get it at all. Any suggestions?

It would be useful if you filled your location in!. As it is I can only say that in Europe we don't have stereo AM - it's far too low a quality, and a waste of time.

You also didn't give any indication of what frequency it might be?, mentioning just the modulation method (assuming you even got it correct?) is worse than useless!.

 

[audioguru]

Sure we got (or had) AM stereo over here. It is for people with tin ears or who can't hear normal high audio frequencies who like the sound of static, ads and announcers to ping-pong back and forth.

Maybe he is way out in the boonies and can't get FM stereo there. I would rather read a newspaper than hear AM crap.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Sure we got (or had) AM stereo over here. It is for people with tin ears or who can't hear normal high audio frequencies who like the sound of static, ads and announcers to ping-pong back and forth.

But just like YOU!, he's not got his location filled in - so we don't have a clue where you might be?.

 

[stevez]

A group of us constructed tuned loop antennas - 20 or 30 turns of wire on a 24 inch square frame that was mounted on a turntable - for use on the AM broadcast band here in the US. A coupling loop was connected to the radio antenna terminals. I am told that simply putting a portable AM radio next to the loop provided plenty of coupling - so no direct connection is required.

The performance is incredible. Barely audible stations are loud and clear as the loop was rotated. This type of antenna has very sharp nulls allowing multiple stations to be heard separately on a given frequency. The null blocks the signal from one direction allowing reception from another. Some add amplifiers for improved performance. Some have added varactor diode remote tuning. I suppose that you could motorize the rotation and put it up out of the way.

NRC (National Radio Club) and others have documented many variations of this antenna.

 

[audioguru]

When I was a kid and didn't know about the sound quality of FM (or maybe they didn't invent it yet!) I had a coil that my AM radio with its internal ferrite-bar antenna fit into. The coil was connected to a long wire antenna and ground without a tuning cap. It could DX all over the planet!

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

When I was a kid and didn't know about the sound quality of FM (or maybe they didn't invent it yet!) I had a coil that my AM radio with its internal ferrite-bar antenna fit into. The coil was connected to a long wire antenna and ground without a tuning cap. It could DX all over the planet!

As kids we used gather up the street for the new top 20 on Sunday nights (was it about 6:00 PM?) - we used to stand a radio (or hold it) next to a telegraph pole that had a wire running down it into the ground. This MASSIVELY improved reception, and a crowd of us used to gather around the radio.

In later years I boght a Hacker radio - the BEST radios ever made!, in fact I still have it - that also used to get placed next to the telegraph pole as well!. But it ran off 18V worth of batteries, and had a large elliptical speaker - a true king amongst portable radios :lol:

 

[audioguru]

Yeah, I also taped a 2nd 9V battery to the back of my "transistor" radio. It worked much better with 18V and didn't blow-up.