blitz wrote in message ...
Roy Lewallen writes...

blitz wrote:

If you can't get Chicago at night on the GE SR, it's going to be a
challenge on any radio.

I think TJ is right- if you're going to bother with a long wire, it
needs to be about 150' to get resonant (as in, tune the frequencies
you want) down to 670 AM. My antenna, like yours (wire, then coax into
the house) at 150', overloads most radios. So it needs some
throttling. Otherwise, it's a monster for signals.

Making the antenna resonant won't help your signal/noise ratio at all.
And it makes no sense to make the antenna larger to increase the signal
(and noise), then adding an attenuator to decrease it so it doesn't
overload your receiver.

Depends on the receiver. I wish I had *more* signal for the R8. It
might not matter, but I'd like to find out.

The Sony I referenced (and most other digital 'hi-fi' tuners) do need
attenuation. Some of the older analog tuners don't.

Noise levels also vary. On some bands it's already down at S1, so I'd
be willing to accommodate a stouter signal.

OTOH, a loop might really help you sort out the competing signal.
. . .

Yep.

A lot of amateurs get confused about the requirements for sending a
strong signal and those for receiving signals clearly. At HF, they're
quite different. And a lot of amateurs have the mistaken idea that
there's something magic about an antenna being resonant. That confusion
is why you keep getting advice to make your antenna longer, higher, and
resonant, while those aren't the solution to your problem at all, and in
fact are likely to create additional problems due to receiver overload.

I equate it (length) with meat-ball impedance matching, which upped
the number of stations considerably (BCB and international SW). It
could also be the 100' of coax into the house.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

I bought the Sony XDR-F1HD and I really like it, no problem getting am 670
even with my crappy long wire installation, daytime signal is very clear.
Haven't tried the nighttime signal but I'll probably need a loop as noted by
others to get rid of the Latin station interference. The fm is very good
also, good value for $75 or so. I'm looking at different options with the
coax. It's routed around the perimeter of 3 walls then into another room and
down a parallel wall before getting outside. I have 4 cheapo 8' fluorescent
lights inside the 3 walled loop of coax and they create an annoying level of
interference. I've confirmed the polarity and grounding on all the ac stuff
so I'll write the hum off as noisy Chinese ballasts and leave the lights
off. But anyway the move to the Sony tuner was a quantum gain. I have a
tower from a conversion to satellite tv I'll erect this spring and install a
fm directional and am loop antennas with a rotor. At that time I should be
able to cut the coax down to a 20' run to the outside in metal conduit and
buried another 20' to the tower in plastic conduit.