Antenna wire?

As John points out there seems to be a little confusion in the band you are talking about: AM or FM. The terminal on the back should say what band it is. If dual terminal it's likely FM, single AM, but that's a guess. It's better to look

As an old fart that can no longer get employment I can assure you that finding someone in a store that knows old tech is like Diogenes looking for an honest man.

For instance: has the person in question ever heard of a vacuum tube? Knows what a Phantastron is?

Ok... 1. I do not own a soldering iron and have no clue how to solder anything. I can spell solder though! 2. My HOA would have a roaring fit if I started string 200 plus feet of wire in the trees! 3. My stereo does not have "jacks". Just little "holes" that you insert twisted wire into and then close the latches. and 4. It is most definitely the AM antenna wire loop. Says so on the loop, the stereo antenna "holes" etc. There's also a place for an FM loop should I ever find one of those. 5. It's in my house near a window and yes I've tried facing that loop all over the place. It's about 6ft fully unwound.

Perhaps I should see if I can find any tv antenna somewhere. That seems workable if I can just twist wires. By the way.. we have a newer (6-7 yr old) boom box (small, not the big one) that has a silver directional antenna. It also has a hard time getting certain AM stations. Oddly enough... our REALLY old (30 year old) alarm clock radio gets AM stations perfectly! Go figure.

I was hoping to find some store that has people who are old enough to know about old tech.

I would always have a bag full of alligator clips wires on me just for cases like this. Just clip a few of these together and clip into the ANT jack - Works wonders sometimes...

You could never go wrong building up one of the twin leads antnna for AM/FM reception like discussed above... Just tape the antenna to side of the trailer or hang between something. Even just throwing it out of a window would probably work like gang busters...


Google Images

The B version would be best to use for FM Radio reception...

Roy Ken

First I'm not sure that is the AM antenna you are looking at,, Most AM/FM radios use a "wire loop" (300 ohm folded dipole to be precise) for FM reception but the AM antenna is internal and is a ferrite rod with wire wrapped around it.

Now, that said, you can improve the AM reception.. here is the information you need.

Am Broadcast is the 300 meter band, thus a proper AM antenna is 75 meters long.. Yup that is 246 feet and change.

Take a wire that long (or if you like you can go shorter but performance will suffer) and connect one end to a ground rod, Wrap it twice around the radio and then toss the other end over tree limbs till you run out of wire, hang a weight on an non-conductive rope (nylon/cotton not wire centered) and you got it. NOTE the direction you toss the wire will affect which stations you hear.

I have seen some wire loop antennas for AM though,, Hold on Here are some linke, (Well at least one)

http://www.mfjenterprises.com/Product.php?productid=MFJ-1020C

http://www.ebay.com/bhp/loop-antenna

Now I'm not impressed with anything on these links, but the first one MIGHT work. The engineers at MFJ do know radio.

I too have found the lack of technical information on AM from store employees to be frustrating.
The loop antenna you have is a good antenna. It's somewhat directional. Have you tried turning it to "face" a different way?
Gonzo's method of building an antenna should work great. The bigger the loop the better.
Is this in your RV or your house? If your house you could try putting a really big loop around your attic.

I have made antennae for years using the old twin-lead TV wire.

First I make a loop about 5 meters long, by soldering the ends together. Then I cut one side in the middle and solder more twin-lead where the gap is. Now I have a T shaped item. I put the antenna in a corner of the room, bent in the middle so the two sides are ninety degrees bent from each other.

This will give you an omni-directional antenna. Now attach the bottom to your receiver.