AM/FM for steel building

Hey guys, brand new here and hope this is the right place to ask this question. We have a steel building out in the country and would like to pick up good am/fm signals using a Dewalt Worksite radio. They don't have a place for an external antenna. I am willing to mount an antenna on the building if I need to, but not sure how to connect the antenna. I am a pretty handy guy.

Anyone successfully solved this problem?

Thanks,

Craig.

I am thinking you need some kind of coupling loop at/on the radio. Then the coupling loop is hooked up to an external antenna via coax cable.

Don't know that radio but typically there is a rod antenna inside for AM, and a collapsible whip outside for FM. While you might (might) get something by running a wire to the whip antenna and clamping it with a hose clamp (not too tight, that tubing will collapse) I can't see any simple way to put an AM signal to the rod antenna, unless you are going to open it up and add wires or a socket.

Sometimes "put the radio on the windowsill" is all you can do, even if that means you have to build a window.

Rred said:

Sometimes "put the radio on the windowsill" is all you can do, even if that means you have to build a window.

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I actually built a windowsill and have it there in the window. I get some fm but not all. Is it possible to add a jack for a car antenna?

Crabo said:

Is it possible to add a jack for a car antenna?

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Probably not, unless you have better-than-average electronics troubleshooting and soldering skills. You'd be better off getting a radio with an external antenna connector. They aren't that expensive.

I'm told the standard car antenna plug/jack was called a "Motorola" plug but I suspect that's not correct. All of the old car whip antennas used the same connector, looks like a single banana plug side, and the radios used a matching jack, If you can find out the proper name and get one, or cut one off a junkyard radio, you can probably clamp it to the whip antenna base--but you could just clamp a long wire to that and accomplish the same thing. A longer wire counts more than a resonant one, for that job.

It's likely that the steel building itself is picking up more signal than the radio antenna

I would first take the radio outside, see how the reception is, then take it inside and see the difference. If the reception is much improved outdoors then you need to connect the radio to an outdoor antenna.

I used to work in an all-metal building and receiving AM and FM was terrible. Even the windows were coated with a substance (think it was called Low E glass) that attenuated radio signals.

For AM indoors you might (no guarantees) fare better using a loop like the Grundig AN-200.