Improving AM Radio Reception w/ External Antenna and Loop Connection 

with a 1996 Suntone RR3000 I'm able to reach mexico city and Toronto from Denver. wish I could reach Cuban stations but just not quite.

Agree me too it was so boring I got into radio which obviously changed my life 📻

Yes, I am very thankful for having the backyard space. My main limitation is my wife! I am upgrading, you might be interested to know. "Investing" in a MFJ 1886 loop antenna...might be a possibility for your condo. (Attic maybe?) I'll be sure to post videos on it once I get it and use it. Thanks for the comment!

Tom, the MFJ 1886 looks like a pretty impressive antenna. If you did obtain one, doing a video on it would be great. I have about a 40 foot wire wrapped around the top perimeter of wall in my study hooked up to an MFJ-1020C active antenna that I use with an SDR play connected to my laptop. It foes a good job but I still enjoy tuning a regular antenna. Thanks for the suggestion.

Jimmy Towns .... I used to only get three AM stations in the daytime but got fifty with a similar setup. I used two 250 foot longwires stretched out over the lower tree limbs connected to a coil made from 24-26 awg magnet wire wrapped on a paper towel tube. 120 turns. Put the coil near the radio. I live out in the country though with lots of space. In NW Louisiana I could hear New Orleans, Dallas, Oklahoma City and Houston just to name a few...during the day.

me too exactly my thoughts

Thanks for the comment! Tell me more about your loop. Is it tunable? Do you have plans? I'd love to get one of those nice Wellbrook loops, but I think I've blown all my radio funds for a while!

​@@Radiodog I had originally set out to build a tuneable antenna with a main loop and a little loop and all that but upon further reflection I decided to start with the simplest loop antenna I could make and see how it would perform. I bought a hula hoop (with a 35" diameter), a broomstick, and a bag of tie wraps for under $10 from the dollar store and then went to Lowe's for a T conduit junction [1] and a 10' roll of copper tubing. I don't remember exactly what it cost but it was under $25. I cut the hula hoop, fed the copper tubing through until it came out the other side, and then I drilled small holes in the copper tubing on either end. Then I fed some copper wire through the holes, twisted it to secure the wire to the tubing, put one end into the left side of the T junction and the other side into the other and lastly connected the wires to a two terminal to BNC connector I had kicking around (they cost about $2), fed it through the bottom part of the T junction, and sealed it up. I stood the broom stick up in a patio umbrella holder, connected a feed line, and I was off to the races. Does that all make sense? It's more difficult to describe this than I expected. Regardless, the antenna works shockingly well. I'd say it's about 90-95% as effective as my MFJ-1886 ($250 + shipping) and maybe about 80% as effective as my Wellbrook 1530LN ($325 + shipping) but at a fraction of the cost. I also built a variation using 14 AWG wire looped three times through the hoop rather than copper tubing but it isn't quite as good. I also tried adding a balun since looped or not, this really is just a random length wire antenna -- it made no difference. You should construct one and give it a try. I have as much fun comparing antennas as I do actually DXing. :) [1] www.lowes.com/pd/CANTEX-1-in-Schedule-40-PVC-Cap/3234068

Yep, that makes sense. No capacitor? Interesting. I'll give it a try. Like you, I am unafraid to try something different and see if it works. How's the noise level on the loop you describe?

@@Radiodog The tuning capacitor and the baluns I purchased for the project sit unused in my parts box. Go figure.

Wish that you had made a RU-vid video to show how you made it. It’s a little bit confusing to me…

Same, it'd help where from the other end gets a reception.

Hi by the looks of it you don't connect it to the radio, you just place it on top.

Made in China

aka 9:1 balun, please Google for more information. vk6ysf.com/unun_9-1.htm

me too what is it

The telescoping antenna is for the FM band and a marginal function for SW reception. AM (MW) broadcast receivers rely on an internal antenna which is part of the receiver's front-end stage. The coil/ random-wire shown couples the signal into the built-in AM stage. The telescopic is N.W.A.S. for MW reception.

@@rickvia8435 hi rick, i always thought i could just take a random wire with an alligator clip soldered on and connect to the telescoping antenna.. but thats not best for SW???

@@micjam1986 A random wire connected to the whip is likely to benefit SW (probably not so much for FM because the whip is more tuned for FM reception). The whip by itself is marginal for SW. Any time you can increase the level of signals (random wire), the better for SW. AM (MW) may benefit as well from the wire through indirect parasitic coupling to the MW circuitry. Better SW receivers provide an RCA jack or screw terminal for connection of a wire antenna.

@@rickvia8435 👍👍👍Thank you Rick, learnt something useful today.

What differences are there, if you could tell us please? :-)

Ariel is a character in a Disney movie, NOT a radio term. Obtain a refund from the school you attended.

You'll just need enough shielded coax to stretch from his outdoor antenna to your car.

@@aviandragon1390 lol and enough to get around town