Can you make a AM antenna out of speaker wire?

[carmen]

what can you hear in San Diego on longwave? say at 8 pm local, when it is maybe 5 am and still dark in europe

 

[pianoplayer88key]

what can you hear in San Diego on longwave? say at 8 pm local, when it is maybe 5 am and still dark in europe

Using that barbed-wire fence across the street with my Tecsun PL-606, the farthest NDB I've heard is from Boise, ID, at night. The strongest signal, 404 MOG from Montague, CA, has indicated a 20dB S/N with the fence. It's right at the threshold using only the stock loopstick, but other than that it's completely deaf in stock form.
My next broadcast LW reception will be my first.

 

[shepaug]

I never thought about utility pole grounds. (or I thought about and forgot)


You mean these wooden utility poles that carry just about everything including electricity ??



Without thinking about it they are grounded here and there. One big braided metal wire into the ground.


This 'ground wire' is not noisey ? (rfi)

 

[pianoplayer88key]

Yes, it's that braided wire, often hid by a piece of wood like this. Some work better than others. For example, the one pictured is overloading the radio on the 2nd harmonic of a local 50kW station 9.2 miles away from there (the Select-A-Tenna was tuned to its fundamental), but that particular stretch of lines is quite noisy. At my house down a side street from there, it's not nearly as noisy, but then the signals aren't quite as strong.

Now... thing is how to get that much sensitivity WITHOUT the utility noise, and be able to pick up weak stations at the noise floor on the first-adjacents to locals that are as strong as they might be here (that's the 60th harmonic of one of the two stations broadcasting from the towers visible in the background), but using only the built-in ferrite...

 

[kenglish]

Here's a link to a Loop Antenna Calculator:
http://www.am-dx.com/loop_calc.htm

Here's a place that still sells variable capacitors:
http://www.midnightscience.com/catalog5.html

Now, just build a loop on most any non-conductive frame. Make it something you can turn, so you can null out the worst interference sources. You can make the loop out of thin hook-up wire, or most anything.

 

[ddsparxx]

Here's a place that still sells variable capacitors:
http://www.midnightscience.com/catalog5.html

That's may be what I need to see. I have variable capacitors with plates touching each other. Thanks.

 

[RadioFixerCLE]

I have been deep underground in various NYC subway stations with a pocket radio and still gotten most of the stronger local MW stations (66, 710, 77, 88, 1130, etc.)with almost full quieting - get close to one of the iron columns holding the ceiling up and reception of various weaker local stations (like 97, 1660, 1190 and so on) clears up nicely.

So, yeah, as long as it's metal....anything can be an antenna. Just make sure you don't have 110 or 220 volts across whatever it is you're using and the ground. ;D

 

[boiseengineer]

Using that barbed-wire fence across the street with my Tecsun PL-606, the farthest NDB I've heard is from Boise, ID

_... _ _ _? Good catch as I've been told the old transmitter's running maybe 100 watts now.

 

[RadioFixerCLE]

That's may be what I need to see. I have variable capacitors with plates touching each other. Thanks.

If you have a vari-cap with plates touching each other, you have a shorted cap -- not of much use. The cap you're describing sounds like the type commonly found in transistor radios -- using either plastic film or mica sheets as a dielectric.

 

[ddsparxx]

Actually they are metal caps. Maybe I take a "re-look" at them to be sure.