How to Make the Ultimate AM Antenna

[Michael Trew]

"Carver Corporation of Lynnwood, Washington once made the ultimate AM
Stereo/FM Stereo tuner, the Carver TX-11b. The performance of this tuner
was nothing short of spectacular on FM; the AM side was even more
impressive, as it was designed to have an audio bandwidth of 20 Hz - 15
KHz -- the same as broadcast FM!"

http://socalradiowaves.com/columns/am_antenna.html

I'd like to make this at some point soon to start pulling in long
distance AM transmissions in the evenings. I rarely have the motivation
to try that at home anymore; sometimes I will in my car.

[[e-mail]]

Post by Michael Trew
"Carver Corporation of Lynnwood, Washington once made the ultimate AM
Stereo/FM Stereo tuner, the Carver TX-11b.

Someone is telling little porkies.... I have an Antenna book written in 1928 that has half-a-dozen variants on that design. Carver may be many things - but reinventors of the wheel - not hardly.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA

[Michael Trew]

Post by ***@aol.com

Post by Michael Trew
"Carver Corporation of Lynnwood, Washington once made the ultimate AM
Stereo/FM Stereo tuner, the Carver TX-11b.

Someone is telling little porkies.... I have an Antenna book written in 1928 that has half-a-dozen variants on that design. Carver may be many things - but reinventors of the wheel - not hardly.
Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA

I've heard of people making huge AM loop antennas in their attics... if
you have a better design or one that's easier to make, please do share
before I start on one at some point here!

[[e-mail]]

Post by Michael Trew
I've heard of people making huge AM loop antennas in their attics... if
you have a better design or one that's easier to make, please do share
before I start on one at some point here!

I will have to dig out the book and scan a few pages for you. Give me a bit.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA

[Michael Trew]

Post by ***@aol.com

Post by Michael Trew
I've heard of people making huge AM loop antennas in their attics... if
you have a better design or one that's easier to make, please do share
before I start on one at some point here!

I will have to dig out the book and scan a few pages for you. Give me a bit.
Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA

Thank you! Take your time, I am in no rush, and I have a backlog of
projects here anyway.

[Jim Mueller]

Post by Michael Trew

Post by ***@aol.com

Post by Michael Trew
"Carver Corporation of Lynnwood, Washington once made the ultimate AM
Stereo/FM Stereo tuner, the Carver TX-11b.

Someone is telling little porkies.... I have an Antenna book written in
1928 that has half-a-dozen variants on that design. Carver may be many
things - but reinventors of the wheel - not hardly.
Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

I've heard of people making huge AM loop antennas in their attics... if
you have a better design or one that's easier to make, please do share
before I start on one at some point here!

Search the Internet; there are many sites that describe loop antennas.
Most of them are tuned as opposed to the untuned one described in the
link above. Tuning makes them more responsive to a particular frequency
than an untuned loop. It also requires that the user tune the loop each
time he changes frequency. Some of the loops on the Internet have a
Faraday shield which helps reduce interference from local sources.

Any loop antenna by itself is unlikely to work well with a car radio.
Car radios are optimized to work with the antenna that came with the
car. Some intermediate circuitry will be needed.

[Michael Trew]

Post by Jim Mueller

Post by Michael Trew

Post by ***@aol.com

Post by Michael Trew
"Carver Corporation of Lynnwood, Washington once made the ultimate AM
Stereo/FM Stereo tuner, the Carver TX-11b.

Someone is telling little porkies.... I have an Antenna book written in
1928 that has half-a-dozen variants on that design. Carver may be many
things - but reinventors of the wheel - not hardly.
Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

I've heard of people making huge AM loop antennas in their attics... if
you have a better design or one that's easier to make, please do share
before I start on one at some point here!

Search the Internet; there are many sites that describe loop antennas.
Most of them are tuned as opposed to the untuned one described in the
link above. Tuning makes them more responsive to a particular frequency
than an untuned loop. It also requires that the user tune the loop each
time he changes frequency. Some of the loops on the Internet have a
Faraday shield which helps reduce interference from local sources.
Any loop antenna by itself is unlikely to work well with a car radio.
Car radios are optimized to work with the antenna that came with the
car. Some intermediate circuitry will be needed.

I had an old console radio with an internal antenna that could be
adjusted, I wondered what the purpose of that was. It looked like it
had some kind of foil shield/box incorporated into it. Thanks!

[Jim Mueller]

Post by Michael Trew

Post by Jim Mueller

Post by Michael Trew

Post by ***@aol.com

Post by Michael Trew
"Carver Corporation of Lynnwood, Washington once made the ultimate
AM Stereo/FM Stereo tuner, the Carver TX-11b.

Someone is telling little porkies.... I have an Antenna book written
in 1928 that has half-a-dozen variants on that design. Carver may be
many things - but reinventors of the wheel - not hardly.
Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

I've heard of people making huge AM loop antennas in their attics...
if you have a better design or one that's easier to make, please do
share before I start on one at some point here!

Search the Internet; there are many sites that describe loop antennas.
Most of them are tuned as opposed to the untuned one described in the
link above. Tuning makes them more responsive to a particular
frequency than an untuned loop. It also requires that the user tune
the loop each time he changes frequency. Some of the loops on the
Internet have a Faraday shield which helps reduce interference from
local sources.
Any loop antenna by itself is unlikely to work well with a car radio.
Car radios are optimized to work with the antenna that came with the
car. Some intermediate circuitry will be needed.

I had an old console radio with an internal antenna that could be
adjusted, I wondered what the purpose of that was. It looked like it
had some kind of foil shield/box incorporated into it. Thanks!

Some radios have rotatable loop antennas. Loop antennas are
directional. They can be rotated to maximize signal pickup from a
certain direction or to minimize interference from some other direction.
If the station and the interference come from the same direction you are
out of luck.

[[e-mail]]

From Hugo Gernsback's 1922 opus - "The Future of Radio" - paraphrased for brevity:

A loop antenna may be from 12" to 120" across diagonally, usually consisting of between 5 and 15 turns of wire. Coupling to the radio may be direct, or indirect. As the loop antenna does away with the ground connection, one end of the loop may connect to ground, the other to the antenna input. Try both ways.

A small-value variable capacitor may be placed in series with the antenna connection for tuning purposes.

A loop antenna is highly directional, even a few degrees off the ideal angle may cut off all reception.

A loop antenna may be coupled with another loop antenna (placed close together) to increase the receiving bandwidth. In this case, a small variable capacitor may be placed within the loop for fine tuning.

That took about 4 pages.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA

[Michael Trew]

Post by ***@aol.com
A loop antenna may be from 12" to 120" across diagonally, usually consisting of between 5 and 15 turns of wire. Coupling to the radio may be direct, or indirect. As the loop antenna does away with the ground connection, one end of the loop may connect to ground, the other to the antenna input. Try both ways.
A small-value variable capacitor may be placed in series with the antenna connection for tuning purposes.
A loop antenna is highly directional, even a few degrees off the ideal angle may cut off all reception.
A loop antenna may be coupled with another loop antenna (placed close together) to increase the receiving bandwidth. In this case, a small variable capacitor may be placed within the loop for fine tuning.
That took about 4 pages.
Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA

Thank you!

So basically, a loop antenna mounted in the attic might not be the best
use of resources, since I can't tune it or alter it's angle/direction at
all. Unless I wire in one of those old-school TV antenna directional
devices that turn the antenna with a turn of the knob. I have the
indoor mechanism around here somewhere, but the motor on the antenna
outdoors is long gone. It seems that I'll have to build a smaller
antenna atop my console radio that I can pivot for best reception when
trying to tune in long-distance AM stations at night.

[[e-mail]]

https://www.staples.com/rca-vh226f-outdoor-antenna-rotator/product_24329332

There is this - that will allow you to rotate the antenna from a distance. If you have enough 'swing' in your attic for a larger antenna than on top of the console, both the size and the height will give you an advantage. Again, loops are highly directional, so that might also mitigate towards a larger attic-mounted device as DXing is your stated goal.

Enjoy!

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA

[[e-mail]]

Meant to add: All you need is 90 degrees of swing for a vertical loop, not the entire 360.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA

[Michael Trew]

Post by ***@aol.com
https://www.staples.com/rca-vh226f-outdoor-antenna-rotator/product_24329332
There is this - that will allow you to rotate the antenna from a distance. If you have enough 'swing' in your attic for a larger antenna than on top of the console, both the size and the height will give you an advantage. Again, loops are highly directional, so that might also mitigate towards a larger attic-mounted device as DXing is your stated goal.
Enjoy!
Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA

Thank you! I'll have to post back when I make one. Not likely until it
cools down here, I'm swamped with outdoor house projects.