My "home made" AM antenna

[jras20]

Not sure if I posted this, but I made a great AM antenna out of about a 100' of wire I baught at a yard sale for 50cents. It sure does beat paying gobs of money over at C crane. I strung it through about 6 times or so through my rafters in the acttic, and then I spread it around on the bottom part, there is 2 places. I do have a picture of it, I'm not sure if you can attach files on here or not, but I can get a great deal of Am stations out in Lavaca county now. Now I can get 550, 560, 590, 610, 630, 650, 680, 700, 720, 740, 760, 790, 820, 850, 860, 900, 930, 950, 980, 1010, 1080, 1100, 1130, 1160, 1200, 1340, 1350, 1390, 1450, 1480, 1500, 1520. Not bad for a 50cent antenna!! AM I didnt really get to test because of the lightling storm, but I'll test it out when I get a chance again.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

You want something truly amazing? Fashion that 100 feet of wire into a box loop antenna - you won't believe the stations you can get!

Here is my loop page: http://www.mindspring.com/~loop_antenna/ With "Quinn's" help - I am going to test an ordinary person's loop - see if an untrained amateur can make a loop antenna out of a large pizza box and a coke can. It would have been a beer can, but she is 15.

BTW - I suspect you could be getting 570, I didn't see it on your list.

 

[jras20]

Thanks - I'll half to look into that, I couldnt get 570 for some reason, I think KLVI has something to do with that. I can get most of the Dallas blowtorches at night when I had my old am antenna setup.

 

[jras20]

My Houston AM nighttime test, well about the only decent station I could get was KTRH at night, but then again, I can hardly get WOAI at night. Now that I hooked up my older computer down there, I'm having some AM problems, I need to get that fixed.

 

[stevenNOLA]

Speaking of WOAI...it was a HELL of alot stronger in LA than it is in Houston (nighttime reception, of course)

 

[jras20]

Speaking of WOAI...it was a HELL of alot stronger in LA than it is in Houston (nighttime reception, of course)

Acually KTRH comes in better for me than WOAI. (nighttime)

 

[Mike O]

Speaking of WOAI...it was a HELL of alot stronger in LA than it is in Houston (nighttime reception, of course)

Acually KTRH comes in better for me than WOAI. (nighttime)

jras actually KTRH coming in stronger is not surprising. While WOAI and KTRH are both 50000 watts, WOAI is non directional sending out 50000 watts, KTRH is highly directional and probably sends the equivalent of 250,000 watts your direction.

My PC that has the actual ERP sent in any direction by a station is down, if I can get it booted back up I will find the amount of power KTRH sends towards Austin and Lavaca County.

Mike O

 

[jras20]

That would be interesting to look at, I checked out radio-locator and it does show that more is pointed out my direction at night. But, they still fade out some, I got a little reception problem now, I fixed up my old computer 900mhz, and with it off, it puts out a bad feedback in AM. strange, if I turn on the computer it doesnt effect it. I dont really want to keep turning off that surge protector on it all the time, I dont know what I'll do with it, seems like there is always something messing around with it. But the FM/TV is fine, but both of those antennas are outside.

 

[CW]

Speaking of WOAI...it was a HELL of alot stronger in LA than it is in Houston (nighttime reception, of course)

Acually KTRH comes in better for me than WOAI. (nighttime)

jras actually KTRH coming in stronger is not surprising. While WOAI and KTRH are both 50000 watts, WOAI is non directional sending out 50000 watts, KTRH is highly directional and probably sends the equivalent of 250,000 watts your direction.

My PC that has the actual ERP sent in any direction by a station is down, if I can get it booted back up I will find the amount of power KTRH sends towards Austin and Lavaca County.

Mike O

According to the FCC AM Database Engineering files, KTRH at about 275degrees true (which is the heading toward Austin from their Dayton tower site) is pushing about 140-150KW ERP at night...coupled with ground losses at 740khz vs 1200kHz, its no surprise KTRH has a better signal in Austin than WOAI.....even KLVI USED to put a decent signal into Austin/Lake Travis area...but that is not the case anymore (its not as good today as it was 30 years ago)...
KTRH's night signal is maxed at 240true from the site...toward Houston...with a little over 200KW ERP in that direction (possibly 225KW)..

 

[Mike O]

According to the FCC AM Database Engineering files, KTRH at about 275degrees true (which is the heading toward Austin from their Dayton tower site) is pushing about 140-150KW ERP at night...coupled with ground losses at 740khz vs 1200kHz, its no surprise KTRH has a better signal in Austin than WOAI.....even KLVI USED to put a decent signal into Austin/Lake Travis area...but that is not the case anymore (its not as good today as it was 30 years ago)...
KTRH's night signal is maxed at 240true from the site...toward Houston...with a little over 200KW ERP in that direction (possibly 225KW)..

[/quote]
KLVI doesn't have as good of a signal in The Galleria area, especially at night that they did ten years ago. The biggest problem is increased interference from south of the border, but those antenna have been at Orangefield/Bridge City since 1948, is it time to upgrade or replace the array?

Mike O

 

[jras20]

I can pull in KLVI pretty decent Day & night, if KTSA wouldnt of turned on the IBOC, I could of pulled in KLVI even more. I really wish they would just focus on HD-FM unstead of HD-AM also.