Greetings Clueless!
It depends on what you mean by super expensive. CCrane offers a very nice AM antenna that would serve you well in your outlying area. They go for a hundred bucks though, (unless you can find one on ebay for less). You can place the ferrite "head' in a spot that maximizes signal and minimizes noise. As far as using light switch cover screws, they tend to be noise magnets, especially if you employ dimmers. ccrane.com is the address and they offer other antennas as well. The Justice AM antenna, (as it was formerly known), at $100, is a lot of bang for your buck. They may offer free shipping also?
Good luck,
John
________________________________
From: Usually Clueless [mailto:usuallyclueless@...]
Sent: Tue 7/13/2004 8:45 AM
To: loopantennas@...
Subject: [loopantennas] AM Antenna- I am a totally clueless non radio granny --HELP?
First let me apologize for wasting everyone's time here but I am so
lost. And thanks for being brave enough to read this. I don't know
what any of these technical terms everyone writes of mean. Induction
is what happens before they put the dog tags on and the rest of the
terms you use are otherworldly to me.
My homely problem.
I was given a radio receiver with 4 clip inputs in the back that say
AM loop and FM loop. With nothing attached, nothing was received. I
do live in a fringe area.
Trying to help myself, I did a little research on the net yesterday
(found you'all then ) and so put a splitter on my TV cable, rigged up
a pigtail for the stereo, put the wire in one of the FM inputs, and
now receive FM stations I could never hear well in the house
before. What luck! Until lightning hits the TV antenna maybe?
Then for the AM I hooked up, into one of the AM inputs, various
lengths of TV/telephone cables, straight and loopy, but nothing. So,
reading from yesterday's net research , I skeptically ran a cable
(medium red/gray color covering, no writing on it, 4 wires I twisted
together) from one radio AM input to one of the two screws on the
room light switch cover. Lo and behold, 2 faint stations, and
another one that I could hear with static at the same volume level as
the broadcast.
But it was the station that I wanted to hear. Looks like my year of
luck, no? Then, heady with success I ran another pigtail to the
screw of a light switch cover that was on a different electrial
circuit. That did noticeably help the static so listening for half
an hour might be tolerable now.
Question: Can I easily improve on this AM a whole whole lot? Is
there an AM antenna to buy that is not super expensive? And easy to
use? I have an attic opening right above the radio I could throw
something large into, if need be. I see cheap little stereo antennas
on Ebay for $10-20. Would one of them work?
I have looked at antenna diagrams but after seeing parts I never
heard of, and with all the 'tuning' and 'ratios' I had a panic attack.
I would be ever so grateful for some advice. Sorry that I am so
ignorant and confused as I have lived 68 yrs and never heard of
a "loop" until 3 days ago.
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