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AM Reception Question

O

oldnewbie

I work at home. I like listening to a local 50kw AM station. But no matter what I try, I cannot get good reception on any radio I have tried. I can't get good reception on any AM station. FM reception is pretty good.

I have tried on 2 different clock radios, an older Marantz receiver which still is in mint condition, and even purchased a GE "Superradio". I have tried everything I can think of.

I am trying to figure out if my environment will prevent good reception, and if so, I don't want to waste my time trying anymore.

Environment - 10 x 12 room. 2 computers. All lighting is compact fluorescent bulbs. The building itself is a seven story building – I am on the second floor. The building is completely fireproof, because every wall is cement and steel rebar.

I have tried to list everything I can think of that might cause problems. Is my situation hopeless? Is there anything I can do to get good AM radio reception?
 
Internet stream instead? No?

The location you are in does figure to be a massive obstacle for any AM reception.

If you can't get an internet stream maybe a handheld battery operated radio that you can reposition around the room until you get a better signal. If it doesn't have to plug in, that can eliminate a lot of noise. Signal may be iffy still.
 
Two options come to mind:

1) Build yourself an AM loop antenna - have a look at this page for ideas: http://www.frontiernet.net/~jadale/Loop.htm or Google 'AM loop antenna'.

2) Run a longwire antenna out your window and across to a high tree or building with insulators in the appropriate places.

It does seem as though your building is not a good place for AM reception.
 
Have you simply placed your radio(s) in front of the window? The loop antenna in front of the window, like the old Zenith Trans-Oceanic Wavemagnets should cure what ails ya.

I was always taught, start with the obvious. Shut down the computers to eliminate suspects and trace sources.

The processors in the computers and CRT monitors create enormous levels of noise. I use CFLs all over, have for years. No noise problem. Light dimmers on Filament bulds are a dealbreaker. Even so-called RFI free dimmers. Good luck.
 
spectacle said:
Internet stream instead? No?

The location you are in does figure to be a massive obstacle for any AM reception.
Click to expand...

Are you serious?! 2 computers. All lighting is compact fluorescent bulbs. The building itself is a seven story building – I am on the second floor. The building is completely fireproof, because every wall is cement and steel rebar.

He has big noise makers in the room with him, the computers and the fluorescent bulbs. On top of that, he's in a steel and concrete room! Ever been in your car listening to AM and go under a bridge? He has a terrible enviroment for trying to listen to an AM station. He would to well to put a loop in a window facing the direction of the transmitter of the station he wants to listen to. A cheap clock radio from Wal Mart is no way sensitive enough to work in his situation.
 
I was afraid that I would get an answer like Kyscotts. I live on the north side of the bldg. - the transmitters for almost all local stations, and certainly the ones I want, are south of me. Most of them are clustered fairly close together on Vashon Island. I have tried putting the GE Superradio in the window - running it on batteries - it didn't help.

When I am in my car, 15' below my window in the parking lot, the radio in the car works great!

I was just hoping that there might be something I didn't try. Unfortunately, the landlord forbids anything outside the bldg. I will try making a loop antenna as suggested by Studio1.

And btw, kyscott mentioned the driving into the tunnel effect. OY VEY!! I was driving yesterday, desperate for a traffic report. 3 times in a row, the traffic report came on just as I was entering a tunnel! (or driving under the convention center in downtown Seattle) "KOMO traffic is %#$%$&*^^&$&...." and as I drive out "traffic again in 10...". I did notice one tunnel where that did not occur. I believe the DOT installed a wide band amplifier to lessen that effect.

(For Seattle area folks, the tunnel where the radio still works is the I-90 Mt. Baker tunnel. I have always wondered why that is called the Mt. Baker tunnel, since Mt. Baker itself is 100 miles north of here!)
 
Superadios have an antenna connection on the back. Go to home depot, get a length of cheap wire, as much as you think you can get away with the longer the better, and drop it out the window. That should help, and you can always pull it back in when you aren't listening. When I lived up north in an apartment building, I was having similar problems to what you're having. I ended up hooking a wire up to the aluminum rain gutters on the building. Worked fantastically and was practically invisible.

Also, the farther away you keep your radio from the computer, the better off you'll be. Get rid of the fluorescent bulbs too.

Good luck.

-A
 
I live on Vashon Island and have no problem getting those 50KW stations....You could always just move out here. I have a great view of the KOMO towers, as I'm typing this (with several RF traps on the phone line). If you’re in the right spot you get radio reception on your TV, Stove and Phone. And for real special residents of Vashon you don’t even have to turn on the stereo to hear one of the fine stations that use Vashon as a transmitter location. It just plays through the stereo speakers with no power turned on. It played at a low level but when the house was quiet it drove the home owner up the wall. Had to wrap a few ferrite cores on the speaker wires and run them lower to the ground versus in the attic.

You can take the Vashon Tower tour here http://vashonradio.com/towertour/
There is also info about each stations pattern in the above link.

Receiving the Vashon AM's in a high-rise, in downtown Seattle or Bellevue is tough. When ever I had to set up off air monitoring for an AM station in the City I had to place a radio or the antenna for the radio out side of the building on the roof. Or a GE supper radio in a window facing the transmitter site (which doesn’t work in your location). You must be in North Seattle or Lynwood maybe????

Locations right across the water from Vashon like, West Seattle, Burien, Des Moines, and Federal Way would get better in building reception because they are closer. Within 5 miles of the transmitter site. The KOMO site would be closest to you since it is on the north end of Vashon.

As a kid I used a 200 foot long wire and a simple crystal radio to drive a Belar AMM2 modulation monitor with no problem. At that time I lived about a mile away from the KIRO and then KING transmitters and was able to monitor both with the Belar. I’m sure I could do that with KOMO now that I live closer to them (just don’t have the Belar any more)

Can’t offer any more encouragement than to move your location to a less noisy environment, with a window facing Vashon Island (south, south west form where you are). But KOMO, KVI and KIRO all stream on line. KTTH does not and I’m not sure for KJR, KGNW, and whatever they are calling the old KING-1090 now. I tried the KOMO, KIRO and KVI windows media streams and they sounded fine. Didn’t listen long to see if there were a lot of drop outs. Streaming these days is much better and more stable.
 
Yes xmtrlnad, I live 4 blocks east and 1 block north of the Northgate Mall. I do stream KIRO, KOMO and KPTK (what used to be KING AM). Of course, when doing so, it cuts into the bandwidth needed to work, so sometimes I just live without the radio.

One more question you, or someone else, may be able to answer. I use Clearwire wireless ISP. Is it normal that the connection is consistently inconsistent? When I do a speed test at speedtest.net or Speakeasy.net, I get up to 1900 kbps at times – 10 minutes later I get 150 kbps, and ten minutes later, I’m back to high speed. Wazzup with THAT?
 
My sister in west seattle has to use clear wire and it is slower than my dsl. With clear wire you need to find a sweat spot. For my sister we found the spot it liked to work the best put the clear wire unit there. Then put a wireless router close by, but not too close to the clear wire unit. I can remember doing some speed test from my sisters house and they were slower and spotty. I can see why you might have some bandwidth limitations at time.
 
This is my favorite AM antenna. http://www.ramseyelectronics.com/cgi-bin/commerce.exe?preadd=action&key=SM100

I have it on the roof and rotate it with a cheap Archer TV antenna rotor I picked up at Dayton a few years ago. I use it with either a Globe Wireless RX-321 or a Racal RA-6790GM.

The GE Superadio is a really good AM radio (at least the one I have had for 30 years). It has connections on the back for an external antenna.

Noise from switching power supplies has gotten to be a serious problem these days. Many of the cheap supplies seem to deteriorate and spew wideband noise across the lower radio spectrum. You can use a portable radio to track down the source while turning off devices one at a time.

Take a portable radio outside before spending any more money and make sure your area does not suffer from general noise.
 
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