What make/model radio are you using?

If you have an option to tune in broadcast band AM stations using SSB
(sideband)
you may improve reception at the cost of limiting audio quality.

Steve

"Steve Stone" wrote in message
...
What make/model radio are you using?

If you have an option to tune in broadcast band AM stations using SSB
(sideband)
you may improve reception at the cost of limiting audio quality.

Steve

Got it on the loop antenna thanks Roy Lewallen, W7EL, sounds like that's
what I need to start researching. My radio is just an older RCA 5.1 surround
sound, I've got a ton of music vinyl and digital and use it mainly for that,
but it's in my shop where I'm the boss and can smoke cigars if I want and
where I listen to most of the baseball. I don't really care much for the RCA
radio because I don't like the digital tuning, if I wanted to get a descent
radio for am reception what's a good choice? I've got a couple older
portables a GE Super Radio and a Midland 8-band, but I'd like a table model
so I can take advantage of the surround sound and speakers I've got
throughout my shop.

"Jeff D" wrote in message
...
Trying to improve my reception from Chicago with baseball season
approaching. I'm about 100 miles sse in Indiana. I ran about 75' RG-6 from
my radio across the attic and outdoors to a tree. I had maybe 10 extra
feet of coax so I wrapped it around the tree. I strung about 50' of #9
steel wire between 2 trees going east/west about 15' above ground and
attached the copper conductor to it. I terminated the coax shield at the
tree with a ground rod. At the radio I attached the shield to the ground
terminal and the center cu conductor to the other am external antenna
terminal.
It greatly improved my reception I get all the major Chicago sports
channels, but the one I was most interested in 670 is the worst. What all
did I do wrong and what can I do to improve 670?

I wouldn't bother with the braid on the coax, use it as one long wire!
50feet is far too short, it's not resonant, you would need about 3 times
that.
You could also try loading the aerial with a large coil of wire or use an
ATU.
Be aware an ATU doesn't match the antenna as such, it doesn't make it
resonant, it only acts to make the reciever see 50 ohms. The aerial will
still remain unresonant!
Other than that, go to www.reciva.com and get the station via the Internet.

On 2/22/2010 8:54 AM, Richard Fry wrote:
On Feb 22, 5:51 am, Richard Fry wrote:

The loop antennas suggested by others may work well, as they are
vertically polarized for the E-field (as is the loopstick of a typical
consumer-type AM broadcast receiver).

To correct myself, loopsticks respond to the magnetic field of an EM
wave -- which, for vertical polarization, lie in the horizontal plane.

Hello, and this is a common misunderstanding, which may owe to the fact
of the response of a receiving antenna in a near (induction) field of a
transmitting antenna. In the far field (several wavelengths or greater)
from the transmitting antenna the receiving antenna responds to the
propagated electromagnetic field. Now, how a particular antenna is
oriented wrt this EM field will determine its ability to extract a given
amount of available power from the incident EM wave. One can of course
think of the action of loops or dipoles in the far field as per
Richard's statement but that sidesteps the underlying physics. Sincerely,


--
John Wood (Code 5520) e-mail:

Naval Research Laboratory
4555 Overlook Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20375-5337

"Jeff D" wrote in message
...

"Steve Stone" wrote in message
...
What make/model radio are you using?

If you have an option to tune in broadcast band AM stations using SSB
(sideband)
you may improve reception at the cost of limiting audio quality.

Steve

Got it on the loop antenna thanks Roy Lewallen, W7EL, sounds like that's
what I need to start researching. My radio is just an older RCA 5.1
surround sound, I've got a ton of music vinyl and digital and use it
mainly for that, but it's in my shop where I'm the boss and can smoke
cigars if I want and where I listen to most of the baseball. I don't
really care much for the RCA radio because I don't like the digital
tuning, if I wanted to get a descent radio for am reception what's a good
choice? I've got a couple older portables a GE Super Radio and a Midland
8-band, but I'd like a table model so I can take advantage of the surround
sound and speakers I've got throughout my shop.
Setup that GE Super Radio, orient it properly and see how it compares to
your RCA 5.1. Let us know.
Mike

The GE Super Radio is what I normally use to catch baseball on am 670,
especially at night, but after about 10pm local time I get a Mexican station
overpowering 670. I'm aware of the internet option but MLB doesn't allow
broadcasting, they want you to buy their MLB network subscription. But
anyway the ideal setup for me would be a good am table radio and antenna
setup that I can input to my stereo system and not fight with Mexico over
the channel.


"amdx" wrote in message
...

"Jeff D" wrote in message
...

"Steve Stone" wrote in message
...
What make/model radio are you using?

If you have an option to tune in broadcast band AM stations using SSB
(sideband)
you may improve reception at the cost of limiting audio quality.

Steve

Got it on the loop antenna thanks Roy Lewallen, W7EL, sounds like that's
what I need to start researching. My radio is just an older RCA 5.1
surround sound, I've got a ton of music vinyl and digital and use it
mainly for that, but it's in my shop where I'm the boss and can smoke
cigars if I want and where I listen to most of the baseball. I don't
really care much for the RCA radio because I don't like the digital
tuning, if I wanted to get a descent radio for am reception what's a good
choice? I've got a couple older portables a GE Super Radio and a Midland
8-band, but I'd like a table model so I can take advantage of the
surround sound and speakers I've got throughout my shop.
Setup that GE Super Radio, orient it properly and see how it compares to
your RCA 5.1. Let us know.
Mike

Dear Jeff D.: Now we have the needed information. You do not have a
signal to noise issue but do have a signal to interference issue. Thus you
need a means for reducing the strength of the XE station as compared to
Chicago. .... and we are back to a loop antenna.

The angle between the XE station and Chicago is large enough probably to
allow you to reduce the signal to interference ratio to an acceptable level
with some rotating of the loop.

73, Mac N8TT

--
J. McLaughlin; Michigan, USA
Home:
"Jeff D" wrote in message
...
The GE Super Radio is what I normally use to catch baseball on am 670,
especially at night, but after about 10pm local time I get a Mexican
station overpowering 670. I'm aware of the internet option but MLB doesn't
allow broadcasting, they want you to buy their MLB network subscription.
But anyway the ideal setup for me would be a good am table radio and
antenna setup that I can input to my stereo system and not fight with
Mexico over the channel.





Got it on the loop antenna thanks Roy Lewallen, W7EL, sounds like that's
what I need to start researching. My radio is just an older RCA 5.1
surround sound, I've got a ton of music vinyl and digital and use it
mainly for that, but it's in my shop where I'm the boss and can smoke
cigars if I want and where I listen to most of the baseball. I don't
really care much for the RCA radio because I don't like the digital
tuning, if I wanted to get a descent radio for am reception what's a
good choice? I've got a couple older portables a GE Super Radio and a
Midland 8-band, but I'd like a table model so I can take advantage of
the surround sound and speakers I've got throughout my shop.
Setup that GE Super Radio, orient it properly and see how it compares to
your RCA 5.1. Let us know.
Mike

"Jeff D" wrote in message
...
The GE Super Radio is what I normally use to catch baseball on am 670,
especially at night, but after about 10pm local time I get a Mexican
station overpowering 670. I'm aware of the internet option but MLB doesn't
allow broadcasting, they want you to buy their MLB network subscription.
But anyway the ideal setup for me would be a good am table radio and
antenna setup that I can input to my stereo system and not fight with
Mexico over the channel.

That's why I ask about the GE, if you can get it to work, you can
cobble audio into your stereo.
Regarding the interfering Mexican station, this a great application for a
loop, you can turn it to null out that offending station.
Even without a loop you should be able to turn the GE to null out the
Mexican Station.
Method;
Rotate the radio so the long dimension points at the Mexican station
(caution it might be in Cuba) :-) When you find the correct aim the audio
from the offender will attenuate. Also sometimes it helps to
tip the end that point towards the offender up a little.
Mike
PS. I hate it when baseball preempts talk radio programs:-)

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.

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.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

"amdx" wrote in message
...

"Jeff D" wrote in message
...
The GE Super Radio is what I normally use to catch baseball on am 670,
especially at night, but after about 10pm local time I get a Mexican
station overpowering 670. I'm aware of the internet option but MLB
doesn't allow broadcasting, they want you to buy their MLB network
subscription. But anyway the ideal setup for me would be a good am table
radio and antenna setup that I can input to my stereo system and not
fight with Mexico over the channel.

That's why I ask about the GE, if you can get it to work, you can
cobble audio into your stereo.
Regarding the interfering Mexican station, this a great application for a
loop, you can turn it to null out that offending station.
Even without a loop you should be able to turn the GE to null out the
Mexican Station.
Method;
Rotate the radio so the long dimension points at the Mexican station
(caution it might be in Cuba) :-) When you find the correct aim the audio
from the offender will attenuate. Also sometimes it helps to
tip the end that point towards the offender up a little.
Mike
PS. I hate it when baseball preempts talk radio programs:-)


yep that's exactly what I do with the GE which helps but it's still pretty
scratchy and at the most 30-40% recognizable audio