How do I make a straight line antenna for am radio?

Question

I have an expensive am/fm radio and it does not work any better than my cheap radio in pulling in distant stations. I like to listen to the talk shows at night on am and want to get stations from both the east and west coasts.

Answer 1

your best bet for AM radio is a loop antenna.

I am no good with math, but here is a page that is.

remember that AM radio in centered about 1MHz = 1000KHz

http://www.mindspring.com/~loop_antenna/

Answer 2

Hiya..

If you are struggling for reception on the AM band then your radio might not be sensitive enough.

Many radios , even expensive multi-band radios often have reduced sensitivity on the AM broadcast bands.

Typically , the signal strength of local stations is high , and manufacturers don't expect many users to require long distance (DX) reception.

To please the majority of customers they reduce the sensitivity on AM so as to prevent problems with strong signal overloading the receiver.

Even many expensive communications receivers have reduced sensitivity on the AM band.

If you REALLY want to have an ultimate AM band radio there is really only one choice.

Go buy a old analogue AM car radio (maybe 10 bucks) , run it off a battery and use an external antenna.

These radios are usually highly sensitive , as they need to pick up a good signal with such a small antenna, as usually is found on a car.

A high quality digital tuned radio may be OK , but the older non digital ones had superior tuned circuits inside, that rejected off channel interference better than new radios do.

I used this sort of setup many years ago when I was wanting reception from my favorite station 600  miles away.

It worked well , and at nigh time I had signal quality like it was a local station.

For more info plz feel free to email me.

http://www.swdxer.co.nr/

Answer 3

mate, what you can do to improve your reception.connect a length of wire (i reccomend copper) to the existiing antenna. the more you connect the better. the highter it is the better. move both the antenna and the radio away from any other electrical devices. if it is battery opperated earthing it out will improve it quite a bit. you can earth it out by connecting some wire to the case if it is metal or a s***w attaching to the main reciver(cirrcuit bord). and run the other end of the wire to a peg in the ground. wet the ground around the peg to improve the earthing