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Homemade AM Antenna

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Calvert DeForest
Posts: 780
Joined: Thu Dec 02, 2004 5:14 pm
Location: The corner of US-16 and M-78

Homemade AM Antenna

Post by Calvert DeForest » Fri May 21, 2021 8:17 am

Got this in an email from CCrane. Looks like an interesting project:

Make Your Own AM Antenna for Free

Well, not exactly free. Your do have spring for a few materials, but you could probably get it done for less than 20 bucks.


Shortwave is the ORIGINAL satellite radio.

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WOHO
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Location: 2965 Pickle Rd.

Re: Homemade AM Antenna

Post by WOHO » Fri May 21, 2021 8:27 am

So kind of a beverage antenna with the far end grounded?



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Ben Zonia
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Location: Honor

Re: Homemade AM Antenna

Post by Ben Zonia » Fri May 21, 2021 9:51 am

I used to use a 100 foot wire run through a ferrite loopstick and 365 pF variable capacitor, and grounded the far end to the center screw of an electrical outlet cover. I think the center screws generally go into plastic boxes now, so you might want to hook it on to a copper water pipe on the far end away from the inlet or well intake, but experiment. Couple the ferrite loopstick to the ferrite rod in the radio. The tuned circuit/LC also selects one frequency, so you avoid many of the overload problems described. I once used a metal clothes rack as my antenna. Anything you might have clipped your Rocket Radio crystal set to that worked is a good antenna possibility. Unhook when not using and before and during storms. If you use an air dielectric variable capacitor, when the electrostatic field between the antenna and ground exceeds the dielectric strength of air, you will hear it start arcing between the plates. This is your final warning. It will start arcing well before the storm, but don't take chances. Unhook it!


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Calvert DeForest
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Joined: Thu Dec 02, 2004 5:14 pm
Location: The corner of US-16 and M-78

Re: Homemade AM Antenna

Post by Calvert DeForest » Sat May 22, 2021 11:42 am

WOHO wrote:
Fri May 21, 2021 8:27 am
So kind of a beverage antenna with the far end grounded?
That's what I thought at first. On second look it appears that one end of the coil clips to the ground, positioned a few feet from where the coil sits next to the radio. The other end clips to the extended antenna wire that is strung out (hence the two aligator clips, one on either end of the coil). You could probably forego the long-wire clip and use continuous wire if you plan to reign it in when not in use, but then you'd have to string it out every time. I'm guessing the clip option is for those who want to leave the antenna wire in-place and just hook to it as they use it.


Shortwave is the ORIGINAL satellite radio.

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Turkeytop
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Re: Homemade AM Antenna

Post by Turkeytop » Sat May 22, 2021 9:16 pm

Where I live there is too much man made electrical interference for MW DXing. But once a year, I go on what I call a mini DXpedition. I spend a few hours at a quiet, remote place in the country.

Usually I spend the time DXing the SW wave bands, but short wave broadcasters are becoming so scarce, I might try making up one of those antennas and try my luck with MW.


I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.

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