|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
64.12.116.131
Hi all,I was wondering if someone could recommend a good AM antenna for my early '70's Pioneer tuner (TX-6200)? I live about an hour west of Albany, NY, in the Mohawk Valley, and I have a difficult time picking up the Albany AM stations which carry the Mets and Yankees games at night. Also, if you could tell me where I can find the antenna, I would be most grateful.
Follow Ups:
I'm suprised you have problems picking up WFAN 660 and WCBS 880 for these games. Those older tuners had an exterior ferrite bar antenna but it must be in proper position. First it must be "hinged" up - it swivels down (close to the rear panel) for storage etc. and then swivels up and away from the rear panel for use. It is directional but I would be suprised if it is situated in just the wrong direction for those close and powerful stations. You can pivot the tuner back and forth to verify this. I get both stations quite well in my house in W.V. on any night. Your house may affect the recption of AM too if it has aluminum siding or a metal roof etc. I would look into these things before investing in an antenna. I would also just connect a long wire as an antenna to one AM terminal if my proposed solutions don't work. Good luck!
What works if the reception of a particular station is good, but at night, becomes terrible ?
Being an AM amateur radio operator there is nothing like the long wire antenna for AM on the broadcast band..If you have a particular frequency you want to listen to and its far away and you want the most optimal antenna you take 468 and divide it by the frequency and that will be the length you cut the antenna to..Thats impractical tho so I would just get a 40 ft long wire and put an insulator on one end and then take a sling shot and shoot it up to the highest tree with a rope on the insulator.
in what direction roughly is Albany, within say 15 degrees?Could you run a LONGISH outdoor wire job, more than 20 feet long!?
off yr TV / Fm tenna mast and on to a tree pointing roughly in that direction?
15 foot high is safe, higher the better!
NB, NB, NB, avoid overhead power cables, no crossing okay!?
wired to the tuners AM 'tenna post?
details on how to raise and lower it, simple? Grounding and earths for MW?
Ask?
For yr down lead use one side of some 300 ohm ribbon down to the tuner, and ground the free side, and you've got a shielded/low noise feed through your house to boot.
no bad thing with 'puters, VCR's, microwaves etc. in the house, all that RFI, and at BCB freq's too!
Loops can dull the HF by reducing badnwidth, this won't. AM's as nackered FR-wise in the USA as it can be.
WarmestTimbo in Oz
The Skyptical Mensurer and Audio Scrounger'Still not saluting.'
Read about and view system at:
Timbo, I have tried various "longwire" antennas, as long as 50', and they just don't give near the signal and low noise of the simple loop which I described further down in this thread.Hi fidelity is really not needed (bandwidth) for "News, talk, and sports" radio, which is what AM is now. Even considering that, I pick up many stations that sound nearly as good as FM.
An AM "longwire" will need to be 50-144 YARDS long.
Also, for a "loop" to work, it must be connected to both the AM and Ground terminals on your receiver or tuner.
Let's see if I can get the photo of my loop to work now.
spacing is pretty wide across Aussie.a loop can do it but you tend to only get about 8k!
my house has more RF noise than outside does!
WarmestTimbo in Oz
The Skyptical Mensurer and Audio Scrounger'Still not saluting.'
Read about and view system at:
http://www.ccrane.com/antennas/am-antennas/index.aspx
Thank you Door Nail.
BTW you can stream the games.
http://wcbs880.com/yankees/
http://www.wfan.com/ (Mets)
I can provide some links if you're interested; not hard stuff to find via Google.
The Selectatenna has a good reputation with some well respected friends, though I have not used one. There are two variations. One works on inductive coupling with your radio's built in antenna, just place it near and tune the antenna.http://www.ccrane.com/antennas/am-antennas/select-a-tenna-regular-model.aspx
The other has a socket to connect a cable from the Selectatenna to the antenna terminals on your tuner if it has no built in antenna.
Hello MRH,Thanks for your help. I'm not very good at using the internet, and I would really appreciate it if you could send me some links.
This is my "Ultimate Loop". It is an "untuned loop", no tuning capacitor. But it works and works very well. Hope the photo works this time. I put the img tag on it last time, not needed here.
I have been using a kit built AM loop antenna modeled after the "Carver Ultimate Loop".http://members.cox.net/rwagoner/columns/am_antenna.html
You can build this yourself. The hooks to hold the wire at the four corners are "shoulder hooks" available in hardware stores. They are similar to cup hooks, but straight, with a 90* bend on the end. These hooks and the center screw on the crossbar MUST be brass, not steel. Brass is non-inductive.
Or you can buy a nice kit, ready to stain and finish. I used Minwax stain (little yellow and red cans) and Minwax water based poly acrylic varnish, blue spray can, two coats.
Below is a link to an ebay sale. This fellow, ebay ID jburns1987, regularly sells these kits. There are two sizes, get the large one, the 17" model, not the small 9".
I'll link a photo of one of Burn's kits I built.
So, how does it work? GREAT! I now have three of these. One is in my metal shop, a virtual "Faraday Cage". I get good AM during the day from local stations, and area stations, including a 5000 watt station that is 190 miles away.
At night I get, from here on the La Gulf Coast, WSB in Atlanta, WOAI in San Antonio, KBAP in Ft. Worth, KXKW in Shreveport, LA, KMOX in St. Louis, and as often as not, WLS in Chicago (though somewhat noisy).
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: