There was a terrific thread about AM broadcast reception on this forum two years ago, but I have other questions.
Why don't expensive receivers pick up stations I get clearly on our car radios in our attached garage? Could you just rig a car radio and antenna and run it into a home theater receiver? Right now, I'm using a tuneable Terk AM antenna, and it helps, but I still can't get stations I get in our cars--or can't receive them clearly.
I strung a horizontal 90' 16-guage "long wire" in the attic. Should an AM antenna be outdoors? Must it be? The attic is big. (Maybe a "Slinky" toy soldered to coax leads would be more compact and do a better job. I wish I'd thought of this, but I found it in the 2002 thread.)
The long wire does a wonderful job--of picking up stati. But then, the receiver sits just four feet from a TV monitor. I haven't yet connected it to the antenna with coax. Only one end of the long wire feeds the receiver now, and the lead is just insulated wire. Should I run coax to both ends of the long wire (or the ends of a Slinky)? Should I run the leads (or lead) from the antenna through a surge suppressor? Is the ground on household electrical service a safe and effective ground for the receiver? Does the APC UPS that supplies current to our entertainment gear monitor and limit activity in the ground circuit?
