Best AM Antenna / Indoor or Out (Broadcast Band)

[N8FNR]

This could be an easy, fun MW antenna to make. The wire is wound on a milk crate; How to build a Milk Crate AM Broadcast Loop Antenna

 

[krokus]

Yes. I did the mod on my MFJ-1025. It works very well on my antennas at home but I usually use it for eliminating noise. Someday I will take it to the park with 2 400' antennas and give it a try.
For those of you that are interested here is the mod:

Here is the link out of the article:

MFJ-1026 Phasing Unit -- on hard-core-dx.com

 

[ka3jjz]

I tried that link and it got flagged for a privacy issue (???) by Chrome - here's the one I think you meant (it's not https)

MFJ-1026 Phasing Unit -- on hard-core-dx.com

www.hard-core-dx.com

Mike

 

[iMONITOR]

Yup!

 

[Groeteschele]

Viel Danken for that LF Engineering link, Groeteschele. I had heard about their H-900 but didn't know they had others. Time to add that to my list of links. Sadly a tower in my yard is quite out of the question (heh)

Mike

Bitte schon. I am working on your indoor carpet loop antenna. Wish me luck. I will report to you my progress when I am finished.

 

[ka3jjz]

I wish I could claim credit for it, but I can't - another ham actually developed this. I tried it and it worked well for me for what it was. It's nowhere near as good as a good outdoor antenna mounted far from the home, but certainly better than a wire tacked up on a wall or ceiling....GL...Mike

 

[Groeteschele]

I wish I could claim credit for it, but I can't - another ham actually developed this. I tried it and it worked well for me for what it was. It's nowhere near as good as a good outdoor antenna mounted far from the home, but certainly better than a wire tacked up on a wall or ceiling....GL...Mike

Hello again. It did not work out well for me. My place has too much noise producing equipment to let any aerial work inside no matter what I do. It still was a learning experience. Thank you again for your advice and help as always.

 

[ka3jjz]

Sorry to hear it. Hopefully you didn't waste too many marks on the parts. Indoor antennas are always dicey anyway....Mike

 

[Groeteschele]

No, it's okay. I appreciate your help. I see your post and shows you are always very helpful with members. I just knew inside aerials don't work everywhere including my flat even being on the top floor. No damage to carpet as I just pull it up all around the bottom of the wall and lay wire then push carpet back down and run wires to various radios. Too much noise making stuff in flat so that was that. Happy weekend.

 

[Boombox]

This could be an easy, fun MW antenna to make. The wire is wound on a milk crate; How to build a Milk Crate AM Broadcast Loop Antenna

I built and use one of these. A couple db over a Select-A-Tenna or similar loop. Easy to make with 110 ft (roughly 33 meters) of wire, an old tuner capacitor, some zip ties, and alligator clips. And yeah -- a plastic milk crate.

 

[K1TSL]

I am using a Tecsun AN100 with a PL880, an old Sony 9450 and a Radiwow 108 and it works with all three really nicely on most nights. Was actually quite surprised at how well it does work. You have to be really precise on where you park the knob so go slow. Definitely recommend trying it out.

 

[ind224]

I have a "full" size G5RV (204' total) at less than optimal height and one leg partially vertically down the tree it is in. SITOR at 515 khz AM broadcast 160-20 meters utilities shortwave NY Aero WWV all good enough for pleasant listening for over 15 years.

 

[AB4BF]

I had basically the same problem as most everyone else. Where I used to live, I had a loop in my attic and my Grundig 800 hooked to it. My new house (to me) doesn't allow a good loop installation in the attic. I bit the bullet and bought a Pixel AM/FM dipole from Solid Signal. Mounted it in my attic and used RG-6 to hook it up. Pleasantly surprised by the reception of AM, FM, longwave, air band and some lower frequency shortwave. I bought another one and installed it outside my metal building shop and hooked it to a Sony AM/FM stereo system. Gets good reception.
They've changed the name to DX Engineering from Pixel but still sell it. DX Engineering AM/FM External Outdoor High Definition Radio Antenna (AFHD-4) from Solid Signal .

Looking at the DX Engineering website, they have it for a little more...

AM, FM and Satellite Antennas - (AFHD-4) KEYWORD | DXE HAM Radio Equipment

Find AM, FM and Satellite Antennas (AFHD-4) KEYWORD and get Free Shipping on Most Orders Over $99 at DX Engineering!

www.dxengineering.com

I forgot to add, one of my ham buddies came by and made me an offer I couldn't refuse after playing with the radio for about an hour, grinning like a possum. Sold it to him radio and antenna.

 

[ka3jjz]

If you want to replace your Pixel, you can get something a lot less expensive - the W6LVP loops are very well regarded. Not quite a Wellbrook but still very good and for roughly half the price. Larry has even been known to add filters in case you are in a high RF area. The reviews on the MFj-1886 have also been very good

Loops - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

While wire antennas are certainly performers, they lack the ability to rotate and null out other stations - unless you have another antenna and use a phasing unit like the ones listed here. The MFJs need some surgery to work on MW, but I understand that you can actually get nulls that are deeper than what you get for a loop. I've never tried these but the reviews speak for themselves

MW DXing and Broadcasting - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

 

[jwt873]

I've been using an ALA100N Wellbrook Loop for about three years now. Medium Aperture Loop Antenna ALA100LN
(They call it a loop, but it's just an amplifier and power inserter... You have to supply the loop).

I made a frame that holds 34 feet of wire in a square. Each side is 8.5 feet. See below -- After three years, it's pretty beat up. I'm planning on putting up something sturdier before the snow flies. I also have a TV antenna rotor that I'll be mounting on the base so I can rotate it from the shack. (Currently I have to run outside to do that).

Works great... I've been listening to the AM broadcast band for years as well as the non directional air beacons down below the broadcast band.. I had been using an off center fed dipole about 260 feet long. When I installed the loop it was like night and day. I started picking up a lot of new stations.

Next to the loop is a shot of the band scope on my IC-7600 taken one evening. It's centered at 1100 kHz and shows from 850-1350 kHz. There's something at just about every 10 kHz.

I've also used the loop to listen to ham radio WSPR stations on 474.2 kHz using WSJT-X sound card software. (Below is an image of a map generated by my wspenet.org app for the iPad. ‎WSPR watch It shows the results of 12 hrs worth of monitoring). All the stations I logged were 5 Watts or less.

 

[a29zuk]

I've been using an ALA100N Wellbrook Loop for about three years now. Medium Aperture Loop Antenna ALA100LN
(They call it a loop, but it's just an amplifier and power inserter... You have to supply the loop).

I made a frame that holds 34 feet of wire in a square. Each side is 8.5 feet. See below -- After three years, it's pretty beat up. I'm planning on putting up something sturdier before the snow flies. I also have a TV antenna rotor that I'll be mounting on the base so I can rotate it from the shack. (Currently I have to run outside to do that).

Works great... I've been listening to the AM broadcast band for years as well as the non directional air beacons down below the broadcast band.. I had been using an off center fed dipole about 260 feet long. When I installed the loop it was like night and day. I started picking up a lot of new stations.

I've made a smaller loop before, only about 18" square with an air gap variable capacitor. It worked pretty well.


I'll have to try building a bigger loop like yours to compare.

Jim

 

[jwt873]

Would be Interesting to see if a large single loop would be better than a smaller multi turn loop... There's someone on this forum that has a much larger loop than the one I made and is happy with the results.