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In Reply to: Godar FM1-A Antenna posted by Dimitry on March 15, 2006 at 19:15:47:
The Model 10 AM works only if I hold it. Great signal. If I put it down, almost nothing. Will barely pick up a clearchannel 50KW station 50 miles away. Will only received that station and one local station.Same poor performance on two different receivers and a tuner.
I've tried various positions, it just does not work. Going to buy a 100' roll of wire and make a "longwire".
Follow Ups:
I was advised that the problem I described with the AM antenna, strong signal when held, weak when not, was due to lack of ground.I found that my outlet's center screw was not grounded to earth ground, just attached to common. There is a cold water pipe in the attic near where I will be putting the AM antenna, and will connect to that.
After talking with Mike at Godar, I returned the Model 10 AM to him to check out.I found that if I disconnected the antenna from the coax I got a BETTER signal with only the coax. Attaching the Godar antenna dropped it to almost nothing... and this was with a strong local station only a few blocks from here.
Packed it up and off to Godar.
Just an aside, though Mike calls the Model 10 a "loop", and their web page refers to it as such, it is NOT, I repeat, NOT a loop type antenna. I opened it up.
MEANWHILE I made a homemade "loop" antenna, no calculations, no plans, just wrapped 5 turns of wire around a plastic form made from an old detergent jug. This antenna works GREAT. Best AM reception I have ever had with a tuner or receiver in the house.
If my trashcan special worked so well, I thought one with some actual design behind it would be even better. I was going to make "The Ultimate AM Loop Antenna" described in the link below. Before I had a chance to get the materials together, I found a ready made kit on eBay sold by a Jeff Burns. He regularly sells these antenna kits and assembled antennas.
I got the antenna kit in yesterday's mail, stained the presanded wood, and let the stain dry overnight (Minwax can says 8 hr minimum). This morning I sprayed two coats of a poly waterbased varnish from Minwax. It comes in a blue spray can. The instructions say 30 min dry to touch. After applying two coats and letting it dry, it took only 10 min or so to assemble it.
Man, this is the best AM antenna yet! I highly recommend it for AM.
Search Ebay for seller jburns1987
And Ebay search for Ultimate AM Antenna
I am getting a LOT of AM stations, and clear, very little noise.
[IMG]http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a384/PaulCoats/PaulsUltimateLoopE.jpg[/IMG]
Well, paste the above link, minus the tags, into your browser.Update on the Godar Model 10 AM antenna... Mike at Godar emailed me saying in a few weeks he would be sending me a new/improved version of the AM antenna.
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