Am radio reception ??

[fenderblue]

Used to have good reception in my house with regular radios. New Walmart radio didnt work, but I get in my 2003 factory truck and I can listen to what I want to. I like to listen to a station that is 60 miles from me, 810 KCMO for sports stuff. Also like to listen to WSM in Nashville in saturday nites.
Bought a Uniden 248CLT used that had AM band and don't have a antenna. I thought possibly my ST2 out side antenna would pickup AM stations like they used to in the 60's. Grandpa used to have a wire that stretched over the top of his house and I think it was a AM antenna, he listens to all kinds of stations although it might for listen to Ham etc. Question is----Can I install a AM antenna outside to feed my scanner, it has 2 posts for connecting. Thanks

 

[Duster40]

Any wire connected to the center pin of your
antenna connection of your scanner
will provide some amount of reception....
the more wire, & the higher the wire, the better.

 

[RadioDaze]

Can you get a hold of one of those AM antennas that usually come with a stereo receiver? (looks like this: http://www.seishinshokai.com/img/aiwa-am_loop_antenna.jpg ) I'm sure someone on here can send you one. You can use it indoors and reposition it for the best signal.


If you use in conjunction with something like this:
Terk Advantage AM Antenna
You should be able to pick up almost anything AM station you'd want to hear. I think this Terk can even be connected directly to the AM antenna terminals.

 

[AC9BX]

The wavelength at 810kHz is 1214 feet long. Even at 1/4 wave length you're looking at 303 feet. A long wire is not the best antenna for AM broadcast band reception although it will offer some signal. A vehicle radio uses an antenna tuner circuit to compensate for the short antenna. Most home and portable AM radios use a loop antenna to simulate the long length in a small space. I bring all that up to set the stage for using that scanner for the AM broadcast band. You'll need a loop antenna. They are commercially available and can be home made.
Most AM radios have awful performance. The AM section of even the most expensive modern home theater receivers flat sucks. Vehicle ones are generally the best performers. Additionally, the modern home is a terrible place to listen to AM. Plasma TV, computer monitors, fluorescent lights, refrigerator motors, light dimmers, and switching power supplies in everything else from battery chargers to scanner radios, digital picture frames, and so on all cause a ton of interference. Among the worst are ethernet routers. These things can radiate a 1000 feet. Hearing distant stations at home without a clean listening environment a good outdoor antenna can be difficult. However, if you do have a clean environment and get a good radio away from all the noise and use an outdoor tuned loop antenna you could probably hear those stations reasonably well.
What many people do is use a vehicle radio. Power it from battery or AC to 12V DC power supply. The supply must be linear or very high quality switching. An advantage is you get a better performing radio and a coaxial connection for the antenna and it has no internal antenna. Most have a trimmer you can adjust for matching it to the antenna you select.

 

[krokus]

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.973 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

Do you have aluminum siding on your house, or a stone/brick house? If so, almost anything you use, to get an antenna out of the house, will be better.