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?

TIA

Bryan

Bryan, even before I finished reading your post, I was going to suggest a ground. There should be a ground terminal by the AM antenna terminal. Use it; the more direct, the better.

You can use coax to shield the antenna wire between the attic and the receiver, and ground the shield to the receiver's antenna ground, also. Leave the other end of the shield unterminated.

I would not pass the antenna wire through the surge device or anything else.The power ground should work, and should be passed through the surge device uninterrupted. A driven ground rod or a cold-water pipe would be better.

Thanks, Larry. Just got in and found your reply. I should be able to follow up on your advice Friday or Saturday. I'm looking forward to the improvement.

Bryan

I started out in this business listening to AM radio stations up to 2000 miles away on a portable radio....

I have the Terk AM antenna (the 9" plastic circle with tuning knob) and I don't quite understand your problem getting signals unless it is a discrimination problem (technical term, don't get offended).

Larry is so totally right. I think it is wonderful that an electrician once more tells somebody to connect a good ground!

The longer the long wire, the less directional it will be. You can even do one that is not a straight line. A quarter-wavelength is a standard lebngth for an antenna, but megaHertz times meters = 300, so at one megaHertz (1000 kHz), a quarter wavelength is 75 meters. Make it as long as you can.


It does not have to be outdoors, but the further it is from sources of noise, the less buzz you will get. These sources are Romex, fluourescent lights, and power lines. The power lines, especially high voltage ones, can really emit a lot of impulse noise when it is foggy or windy. Put it at right angles to power lines if you can.

The slinky idea was to make an antenna seem physically longer by having multiple coils that not only have their own length but act as though they are longer because of the inductive effect of being coiled up. It would be worth getting a ham radio manual and looking at base-loaded antennas, then using proportions to resize these for 1 mHz. Do not worry that base-loaded antennas are vertical and yours will have to be horizontal.