On Fri, 25 Jul 2014, Lostgallifreyan wrote:

Hello. I've seen many 'boosters' for radio reception, none of which do what
I'm hoping for, so either my aim is foolish beyond imagining, or really
interesting. Please tell me which.

I hope to boost the incoming signal to override the ocal RF mush from nearby
flats, and to do this for a portable receiver so I want no cables attached to
it at all. I have considered two possible ideas:

Modify the radio so coax can be attached, and feed it from the good
antenna outside (or even just positioned well inside).

Or, buy a radio that already has an external antenna jack.

For FM, local interference should be less of a problem, since most of
it is AM. It would have to be quite strong to wipe out decent strength FM
signals. That said, what you need is to get stronger signals, so they
capture the limiters in the receiver.

Coincidentally, this week I came across a reprint of a great article from
Audio Magazine back in January 1991, where the author talks about getting
the dipole further up, and oriented properly, and then goes on to show a
collinear antenna made from 300ohm twinlead and some wire. A better
antenna is probably a good thing, and if it can be oriented to improve
wanted signals but not be so good for interfering signals, that's a good
thing. The article is he
http://home.earthlink.net/~schultdw/...Reception.html

But connecting directly to the radio is going to make the best
improvement. If you need the signal stronger than the local noise, any
amplification or remodulating transmitter will have to be stronger than
the local noise, and since radio signals drop off rapidly with distance,
a too strong for legal signals is likely to be needed.

Michael