Is there an easy way to increase the reception on a radio with one of those simple, single wire antenna?
Asked by
ibstubro (
18804
)
August 14th, 2015
I have two of these radios I use quite a bit, and due to location I get extremely poor reception. One is an under-the-counter seated right next to the fridge.
Is there a simple way to boost reception?
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6 Answers
Attach it to yourself. .. it will boost the signal.
If it’s an AM radio you can probably boost reception by winding single core wire around it. If it has a ferrite antenna inside (most of them do) the windings need to be at 90° to that. Experiment with different numbers of windings.
If it’s an FM radio with an external antenna you could try a simple long wire antenna. One end of the wire needs to be attached bare wire to metal antenna. In principle the longer the wire the better the reception should be.
These are fairly simple ideas. Are you looking for something more complex?
Attach the antenna lead to the ground wire in your house. (The green one, not the black!) The metal in the fridge may block some reception, so move the radio or the fridge.
In the olden days, when watching television meant wrestling wire hangers into elaborate modern art sculptures, I bought a device which plugged into a wall outlet and used the entire building’s electrical wiring as a massive antenna. Worked great. I’m not sure if they still sell them. You may be able to find one on eBay if not. You could also try running a copper wire to your bathroom or kitchen pipes, assuming they’re not PVC.
You can only increase your reception by getting a better antenna, improving the antenna ground or moving the antenna. If you are just out of range of the transmitter there is nothing you can do short of getting a radio that has a much better reciever with a removable antenna that you can string up to your roof. For FM you can forget about all the normal stuff people try with foil and shit. Antennas must be an exact length or some natural harmonic (in length) of the frequency being tuned. As your antenna length moves from the perfect tune your reception will get worse and worse
If it is a transmitter range thing simply moving the antenna a couple of feet can make a huge difference. FM experiences “picket fencing” on the edge of the transmit range.
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