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C. Crane 2E Improving AM Reception

louis_p

louis_p

Hello my fellow radio geeks,

I wanted to pick your brains for some advice. As an early Christmas present to myself, I purchased a C. Crane 2E AM/FM/Ham radio. I mainly intend to use it for camping trips and backcountry travel (a radio ghost town) as well as listening to first responders during fires and natural disasters.

I’ve played around with the AM reception at night with mixed results. I live in a four story condo in Vancouver, BC that faces south and west. The radio can easily receive stations along the West Coast and Vancouver Island. I can receive the clear channel stations without any problem (KOMO, KIRO, KGO, KFBK, KEX). KGO and KFBK consistently boom in like local stations after dusk. I also receive a lot of lower powered stations like KFLD from Pasco, WA and KXTG out of Portland.

After reading some of the reception report here, I’m surprised that I can’t receive stations from back east like KOA, KSL or evening some of the blowtorches like WCCO, WBBM, or WWL.

I noticed that the radio has two screws for connecting an external AM antenna (one of them for ground). Would an external antenna help me pull in some of the distant clear channels more reliably or would it just improve reception of the low-powered stations I’m receiving from Washington state?

Cheers and Happy Holidays!
 
The key here may be 'South and West'. The stations you want are all south and East. Basically thorough the building. Since you are on the fourth floor, I might suggest using the external antenna jack and tossing the longest wire you have out the window and see what happens.
 
WBBM and WCCO are iffy here, and I live in the Seattle area. That's with any radio. An external loop helps. But even with an external loop, those two stations aren't very strong here. KSTP 1500 is consistently stronger than either of those two Midwest US stations.

WWL has never been common here. I've heard it clearly maybe three or four times in the past decade. KFLD usually is on top, and there are a couple other stations that sometimes appear in the back of KFLD also.

KSL is usually a mainstay here. You might have some splash from CFAX, but KSL should be audible. Your positioning -- as K6JHU mentions -- may be an issue for KSL.

KOA I usually hear on good nights behind local KHHO Tacoma. It usually is just readable, with the Coast to Coast program. If KHHO weren't there KOA would probably be S3 at most, even on a Superadio.

I would get an external loop and try that. Unlike a wire antenna, it can be repositioned to null out stations, RFI, etc. The Grundig / Eton AN200 would do, and is readily available online.

One thing to remember is that even with a good radio like you have, an external loop can boost signals enough to get better reception, IDs, etc. I use external loops with my Superadio, and also sometimes with my Sangean PR-D5. Sometimes it's just enough boosting to do the trick.
 
Thanks for your replies. I hooked up a short wire to the antenna connectors and didn’t really notice much of a difference. It seemed that KFLD and CFAX were a little stronger but it didn’t seem to help me pull in any clear channels from back east.

It’s interesting that I’ve been able to consistently receive a strong signal from KFBK. The station comes in really strong with almost no fade every night. What’s puzzling is that the signal is clearer than KIRO, KOMO, CFAX, and KFLD, all of which usually have a hum background noise.

The explanation from K6JHU makes sense. This side of the building is good for digital TV reception but limited when it comes to AM radio. I might see if the Grundig/Eton can pull in more stations. It may come in handy when I’m travelling.

Hope I can expand my DX horizon very soon!

Happy Holidays!
 
A wire won't add much on MW unless it's 100 feet (30 meters) or more, especially with a 2E, which already has a good antenna inside (200mm loopstick, if I recall correctly).

An external tunable loop (like the Eton) will help, though, because it's designed specifically for MW reception and is tunable, which peaks the signal. You just sit it next to your 2E and turn the knob until the signal peaks. It won't work miracles, but it should definitely help some. I use one with all my radios, as I've said. They work.

Good luck and have fun. We out here on the Portland - Seattle - Vancouver corridor have those mountains to the east of us to contend with -- hearing stuff from the middle of the continent is always a challenge. :)
 
Years ago I had a Radio Shack portable radio that received a huge span of frequencies. It had a very good tuner and I was able to hear all kinds of things from all over. I was particularly excited the first time I heard Voice of America from an apparently-African transmit source. Anyway, I tried an external antenna for AM/MW reception by simply using a long wire that I ran outside. It did a big fat zip-o to improve reception on any band or frequency. I shortly got a Select-a-tenna, and that helped AM quite a bit on the distant stations.

So, I agree with the others here who have suggested the external loop.
 
One thing I don't like about these new C.Crane radios is that every time you change frequency, you have to wait for the twin-coil antenna to retune itself. This really slows down band-scanning.
 
kevtronics said:
One thing I don't like about these new C.Crane radios is that every time you change frequency, you have to wait for the twin-coil antenna to retune itself. This really slows down band-scanning.
Click to expand...

That might not be the twin coil itself retuning -- it's the DSP chip tuning to the antenna. It would do it even with a single coil loopstick. My PR-D18 does it (non twin-coil) as does my PR-D5 (twin coil version of the radio).
 
boombox4 said:
That might not be the twin coil itself retuning -- it's the DSP chip tuning to the antenna. It would do it even with a single coil loopstick. My PR-D18 does it (non twin-coil) as does my PR-D5 (twin coil version of the radio).
Click to expand...

This explains why I hear certain distant stations gradually fading in when I’m scanning frequencies. I’ll try out the external loop antenna and report back.
 
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