On Tue, 3 Apr 2007 19:07:47 -0400, "Pete" wrote:

Hi everyone,

I am new here, so please excuse my ignorance about antennas, or if I am in
the wrong ng. I could not find any help getting the answer to my question
by googling.

I have a cheap boom box radio that I recently bought at Walmart and it plays
great music, and cd's, and cassettes. Unfortunately it will not play my
favorite FM oldies station (97.5 MHz) either in my workshop, or my house (it
plays several other stations fine). My other boom box will play the station
(and its 20 years old), and they are both of relatively equal value (the
older one is a brand name - Panasonic). If anything, I would think the new
one should have 20 year newer technology in it, and it should play at least
as good - dunno.

They both have a telescopic whip antenna (I hope that is the right
terminology), and the new one will not play the station I want by either
rotating the antenna, or moving the radio to different positions. I have
tried everything. The only way it will play the station I want, is to put
my hand on the antenna (or even around the antenna - ie I don't even have to
touch it - interesting - I guess my body makes a real good antenna - I have
always wondered about this phenomena). I tried touching it with other
metallic devices (eg, wire, coat hanger etc), and it has no effect. The
only way it will play the station is by getting near the antenna with my
hand.

I see no way of mounting an FM antenna to the receiver (ie the antenna is
factory mounted to the back of the radio.

I have a couple of questions if you will allow me :

- Is there anything I can do to the existing telescopic whip antenna (such
as wrap it in aluminum foil or something else weird like that) that will
enable the radio to pick up the station I want. And also, please explain
why it plays the station I want when I put my hand on or around the antenna.

- I thought AM and FM antennas were different technologies (so to speak - eg
amplitude modulation versus frequency modulation). How come portable AM/FM
radios only have a single telescopic whip antenna (please excuse me if that
is the wrong terminology). Is the whip for FM, and the AM is inside the
radio, or it uses the cord (just a guess).

Any comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks...Pete


You could look around for a GE SuperRadio III -- it runs about $40-50
nowadays, and has a separate FM antenna terminal you can hook up a
decent antenna to. This radio also has two speakers, a woofer and
tweeter, and sounds pretty nice, tho' it is mono.

bob
k5qwg