Would an AM antenna work for tv?

Question

Would an AM loop antenna work for VHF tv?

Answer 1

work? depends on your definition of working.  it would work, very poorly.  

are you trying to build/ throw together some thing together?

A straighted paperclip would probobly work better.

try a piece of wire  3 foot or so long.

AM band is 2 decades off from the vhf spectrum. Try a FM antenna, its atleast in the same frequency "neighborhood"

or just buy a FM/VHF/UHF indoor antenna. costs about $9 at walmart. Dont fall for the ones an amplifier ( ones that plug in the wall) it wont matter if your putting it indoors.

RCA makes a nice outdoor/indoor omni directional for about $60 also at wal-mart.

if you go the outside route, higher and away from obstructions is better.

Answer 2

It would work, but not well.  AM radio is much lower in frequency compared to VHF TV so the antenna would be too long.  

For example: a 710kHz AM radio antenna would need to be 422.24 meters long.

A channel 7 VHF TV antenna would need to be about 3.0 meters long (or a multiple there of).

Just for grins, a channel 38 UHF TV antenna would need to be 0.488 meters long (or a multiple there of).

An FM radio antenna would work quite well, though.

I hope this helps.  Please return and select a Best Answer from all of those submitted.

Answer 3

It may give you some reception, but not very good.  You may have noticed that external TV antennas have multiple elements.  Usually starting with the smaller ones at the "front" (the end that points toward the station)  to the larger ones at the back.   These elements are of specific lengths for different TV frequencies.  The higher the frequency the shorter the element.   An FM antenna is of a specific dimension for the FM band.  This is located in the frequency gap between TV channels 6 and 7 and thus will give you some reception.