Quality AM radio

I live in a rural area, but it sounds like your cabin is even more rural. No matter what kind of radio you get, you will not get many stations without an outdoor antenna. The good news, for AM, all you really need is a piece of wire strung outside. 20 or more feet of wire between a few sturdy trees works fine, then run it into the house by drilling a 1/4" hole and caulk around it once it's inside. Pretty much any sort of wire will work outdoors, insulated or bare. Use some insulators on the ends. I'd use insulated wire coming in thru the wall.

If your AM radio has no antenna connector, but has a telescoping antenna, just coil the wire around the telescoping ant numerous times. I do this in my barns, because they are metal buildings. Without the outdoor wire, I'd get no stations. That wire works for FM too, but not quite as good.

If you use trees, be sure to leave some slack in the wire. Trees sway in winds, and if the wire is tight, it may break.

Hello, and you want a radio of requisite sensitivity so you can enjoy the "quality' of AM radio? Can you parse languages other than English? Just kidding. In addition to the advice already provided by others, you might want to check with a seller like C.C. Crane. I assumed by "AM" you meant the medium wave (535-1700 kHz) band. A multi-band "communications" type receiver (with an RF gain control) might be a solution but likely isn't the least expensive one if bought new. In any event, reception using a simple, old-fashioned long wire antenna will most often provide better performance than a built-in telescoping whip antenna. Another possibility is to use a passive (no batteries required) variable capacitor tuned loop antenna. These can be built or bought, can be used indoors, and I've seen them dramatically improve the MW band performance of inexpensive transistor portables. The radio is simply positioned at the base of the loop (radio's internal ferrite loop becomes inductively coupled to the antenna so no wire connection to the radio is required), the radio is tuned in the vicinity of the AM station of interest, and the loop capacitor is adjusted for maximum signal. Sometimes the radio needs to be slightly repositioned to optimize the radio-to-loop coupling. And finally you can rotate the radio and tuned loop together for the strongest reception. Please let us known what works for you. And one last thing: Don't rule out the use of FM (assuming you like whatever program content is being offered) as I've seen situations where AM reception is lousy but FM works. Sincerely,

--
J. B. Wood	            e-mail: arl_123234@hotmail.com

Mpffff... This is an easy one. If you are looking, primarily, for good rece ption over top-notch sound (mostly wasted on AM anyway), and this is to be a single-purpose device, look for something like a solid-state GE "Super Ra dio" or similar. They are fair-enough sounding and far better than average at AM DXing capabilities. Low in cost for very good results.

vX8 I keep one of these at our summer house that is no slouch at all. Th e AM band is pretty busy, especially at night.

A step up from there would be a multi-band radio such as a Zenith TransOcea nic. Of those, the ne-plus-ultra would be the RD7000Y - and why that one? A ll silicon, has the tunable weather band, and will give you some amusing sh ortwave capacity.

_ex_kw=&_in_kw=1 One of these has lived at my work desk for over 20 y ears.

Hard-Core would be a Communications Receiver, something in the Hallicrafter s, Collins or National lines - which are a whole different can of worms, do want an outside antenna, and likely will contain tubes rather than transis tors.

And, one of these will truly separate fly-poop from pepper. Give it an 80' longwire and you will be getting AM from Hawaii - or thereabouts.

Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

ception over top-notch sound (mostly wasted on AM anyway), and this is to b e a single-purpose device, look for something like a solid-state GE "Super Radio" or similar. They are fair-enough sounding and far better than averag e at AM DXing capabilities. Low in cost for very good results.

ZvvX8 I keep one of these at our summer house that is no slouch at all. The AM band is pretty busy, especially at night.

eanic. Of those, the ne-plus-ultra would be the RD7000Y - and why that one? All silicon, has the tunable weather band, and will give you some amusing shortwave capacity.

&_ex_kw=&_in_kw=1 One of these has lived at my work desk for over 20 years.

ers, Collins or National lines - which are a whole different can of worms, do want an outside antenna, and likely will contain tubes rather than trans istors.

' longwire and you will be getting AM from Hawaii - or thereabouts.

The old Vega/Ocean radios are very cheap dx sets. Some mericans might not l ike their origins. But don't worry, they don't run Kaspersky.

NT

The old Vega/Ocean radios are very cheap dx sets. Some mericans might not l ike their origins. But don't worry, they don't run Kaspersky.

I keep one of these as well - a small hand-held - and, yes, it does very we ll. Competitive, but not better than my Siemens RK747. They are not easy to find in good condition, nor do they wear well. I paid $2 + about 4 hours o f very persnickety work fixing the battery compartment and re-securing the guts on mine. Pure blind luck that it worked at all - but it does, and well .

(not mine).

But if we are going into Euro-Exotics, the very best consumer-grade DX radi o I have in all bands is this one:

The second best is the Zenith RD7000Y (and the best for sound overall). Fol lowed by the Grundig YB500.

Point being that the smaller radios have smaller sound - if that is a consi deration.

Repeat: Communications Receivers are a whole different thing. If the OP wan ts to pull stations from the moon or Mars, that should definitely be a cons ideration.

Thanks all. CP

first depends what you mean by quality, able to hear weak stations? or high fidelity?

in either case, the big problem with AM is electrical interference which will sound like buzz noise usually.

if you are out in the woods, your own stuff will be the only source so you have a chance to control it

light dimmer, wall warts, fluorescent lights computers, all these are potential sources of electrical interference.

use a battery operated radio and turn off the electricity and you will be surprised what you can hear especially at night.

m

I've heard of the GE Superradio, but didn't think I needed anything more at that time. Is it especially good on FM as well as AM?

I still have my 1930 Hallicrafter shortwave, not divided by bands as such, but 4 positions of the switch and continuous tuning from one to another.

I don't have the best antenna. I took 4-wire phone line, solder two pair together at one end and one pair at the radio-end so it goes down and back twice and it was stretched down the stairs. I think I should more it to the attic.

I run Kaspersky but I lie about what I'm doing so when they report back, it will just confuse the Kremlin.

I've used lengths of plastic twine at the ends as insulators. Effective, always to hand, easy, cheap.

:)

I thought all phone line wire was twisted pair. If that's the case then I would think your setup would tend to keep radio waves, AKA interference, out. Maybe that's why your antenna isn't working very well. Eric

It's RG-62 and it's a pain in the ass to work with.

--
Jeff-1.0 
wa6fwi 
http://www.foxsmercantile.com

Right, the AM band, which, regarding radio, is an abbreviation for 'Amplitude Modulation' as opposed to FM (Frequency Modulation). Unless you confuse AM (Ante Meridian) here in this thread to mean morning-time only radio use.

Quite so, I had a Kenwood "system" with separate components. The AM/FM tuner was absolute shit on AM. Single IC "AM subsystem" both sensitivity and selectivity were marginal.

When I was "gifted" a Technics home entertainment system, I threw the Kenwood in the trash where it belonged.

--
Jeff-1.0 
wa6fwi 
http://www.foxsmercantile.com

I've heard of the GE Superradio, but didn't think I needed anything more at that time. Is the GE Superradio especially good on FM as well as AM?

Counting back and forth twice, it's 80' or a little more. Maybe I should shorten it to 80' ???

All the indoor phone wire I've seen has been 4-wire untwisted. Red, yellow, black, and green.

Thanks but it's not twisted. My next-door neighbor is, but that's another story.

Back then many of the transistor radios had a transistor or more used as a diode. Guess that was a big selling point for them as to how many transistors a radio had. Just like the watches of the time had so many jewels in them.

So true. And the politics are, fwiw, mostly conservative.

If someone has a shortage of radio but plenty of bytes, I recommend RadioMaximus**. It has a free version that does everything the paid version does except you can't schedule a recording in advance. You can still record, but I wanted to record The Big Broadcast on WAMU on Sunday nights when I wasn't here, so I bought it, maybe $40.

He has a list of hundreds of online stations from all over the world, categorized by location, type of radio, talk, oldies, classical, and I'm pretty sure you can find religious too.

It doesn't depend on a webbrowser, so when you open too many tabs in FF and it freezes or crashes, it doesn't interfere with listening.

Then you can get wireless speakers for the rest of the house and even outside. 20 years ago I got 2 1/2 pairs of RCA wireless for very cheap, but now they are harder to get and they are pushing bluetooth, which is more expensive and afaik, the range is less. I listen mostly to talk and even when it's music, it doesn't have to be stereo, so I put one speaker in my bedroom, one in the bathroom, one in the basement, the kitchen, and there's a spare for outside though I never use that. But I can have the same station no matter where I go. Both RCA and bluetooth run on batteries too.

**He has a second product too, RadaralTuner or something like that. They seem very similar, and the biggest problem with radiomax is that some stations are not available all the time -- one oldies station .977 the Oldies Channel** will play for 30 minutes or 2 hours and then stop, but 181FM Good Time Oldies will play for days in a row with no problem -- and I figure he provides the same list of stations to both programs (you can add them yourself also) so changing programs won't affect that. **They give some of them numbers although I think the numbers don't mean anything.

These station urls are not widely available. I think volunteers have collected the list for him, although last I looked, WYPR was not on his list and when I went to its website and clicked Listen Live and got that url and copied it to RadioMaximus, it didn't work. I wonder why. So when I want that I listen on the radio. It's competitor 40 miles away, WAMU, I can only get on car radios and my expensive table radio and sometimes on a very cheap radio but that one seemed to break (not even on some fancy tuner), but I listen to it on Radiomax for hours on end. Listening to it now.

Yes, it was a competitive advantage for advertising purposes. And, the manufacturers could use "bad" transistors for this - ones which had failed the test for one reason or another, had an open emitter or open collector, etc. They could get these cheaply, or use the bad ones out of a large lot they'd bought in bulk.

Another thing about crappy AM is bandwidth. Normally it is narrow and will not reproduce the highs well. I guess they were going for selectivity and l ower noise. With FM the frequency response remains but a narrow bandwidth I F will increase distortion. Some high end FM tuners had switchable bandwidt h which allowed for the lower distortion (especially in stereo) when set to wide and better selectivity when set to narrow. I remember seeing an AM wi th that feature but for the life of me can't remember what make or model. I think it had shortwave.

If you want talk radio shortwave is the way to go, especially the forbidden band. I don't know exactly what frequencies are forbidden but all you have to do is look at the in the stores or read the specs, you will find frequ ency ranges missing. The politically incorrect go there, like American Diss ident Voices. Those bands are omitted ostensibly because the programming is US based and intended for non-domestic audiences.

The same FCC are the ones that mandated tuners must have both AM and FM. Th is is one reason, people with separate tuners want high fidelity and are no t concerned with AM.

I remember seeing an AM with that feature but for the life of me can't remember what make or model. I think it had shortwave.

The Zenith RD7000Y has that feature as well as a BFO.

Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA