cognitive_ethology schrieb:

Hello I have an Eton S350DL and live in valley out in western Montana.
I know that this radio is single conversion but I was wondering if
anybody knew of any good, but bargin priced external antennas that
that i could use with my radio and would help me get some better
reception.

Shortwave, AM or FM?
AM is simple - a decently large tuned AM loop. Works fine with inductive
coupling. Takes an AM (or AM/FM) tuning capacitor with known max
capacitance (typically 250, 365 or 500 pF), preferably air; PVC/mica
would also work decently, and if you can't get anything but varicap
diodes, even those would work decently (I would suggest using 4 in
total, two times two back-to-back in parallel).
Some loopy theory:
http://www.mindspring.com/~loop_antenna/
FM also isn't too difficult - while I think the 6-element Radio Shack
yagi is discontinued, one should still be able to find something decent
that doesn't cost an arm and a leg in the States. DIY is less common in
this field.
Some antenna simulations (along with other more advanced FM stuff) are
to be found at Brian Beezley's site:
http://users.tns.net/~bb/
Shortwave, hmm - since I guess image rejection and strong signal
handling aren't the Tecsun's strength, a tuned loop seems reasonable in
this case as well. You'll probably be using one turn only, and you'd
have to bother with a coupling loop to feed the rx, but other than that,
what's been said for AM loops also applies.
Sample instructions: http://www.kr1st.com/swlloop.htm

If not, does anybody have any tips on what I could do to
get some better reception without the use of an external antenna.

Hunt down and kill (or turn off) sources of local interference. The
classics are TVs (and other equipment with switching mode power
supplies), dimmers for oldschool incandecents, computers along with
monitors and networking equipment and all kinds of other electronic
gadgetry.

Stephan
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