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Definitely more of these when you get the notion. Wonderful

JUST QUICKLY. Hey there Radio dog and other radio friends. I watch the video about using an 80 foot random wire for SW and AM broadcast band. How interesting!!! I am really motivated once again but even more this time after watching this video. Over a span of many years I experimented a few times with a long wire antenna for reception on the MW broadcast band. Interestingly, I observed the results and differences of using the long wire versus a built in antenna of the receiver or radio that I was connecting to the long wire. Well I started to loose motivation because with my experiences it seemed that the whole idea of an after market long wire connecting yielded weaker signals than the built in loop or ferrite bar antenna and I started to wonder why I even bother messing around and reading and learning about technical stuff about radios and antennas. I sort of started to sort of feel that the built in antenna that the radio is made with works best and that it is sort of inferior using an external antenna for MW. Now however after watching several of Radio dog videos I have a whole new and very motivated perspective to continue with my experimenting with long wire antennas for the MW broadcast band and radios that have the MW broadcast band to which I can connect them to to improve reception and when I mean improve reception I mean higher signal strengths, more stations to be heard across the MW band and lower noise floor and no inter mod or distortion. My guess it is the application of the 9:1 balun that can really do the trick. That is one ingredient that I did not use in my previous projects and will remember to use in my future endeavors. 🏁

Thank you for this video. You seem to be quite knowledgeable about this subject, so I'm seeking some advice. I have recently restored a 100 yr. old Atwater-Kent AM Model 55 radio. Very little work was performed on the electronics unit itself, as you could imagine after 100 years some of the antique wire was 'petrified'. It has vacuum tubes, they were all tested, 2 needed to be replaced and were. Upon energizing the radio, all the tubes have a nice glow. But I seem to be having an antenna issue. While I can hear some static through the speaker, I'm not picking up any stations. I thought it was worth trying one of those cheapo loop antennas with 2 wires. The radio itself has 3 spring loaded antenna connections, a ground, a short local connection, and one for long distance stations. While trying the loop antenna, I heard a voice near the bottom of the band for about 2 or 3 seconds, but not after that. There is still some static through the rest of the band. If capacitance coupling is necessary, I'm not sure how that is achieved. The front panel of the radio does have a selector that chooses between the long and short antenna capabilities. Could you offer a suggestion regarding the antenna hook-up arrangement?

The most recent question/comment I see was from 3 months ago, so I'll venture a question regarding the wire hook up. You have the black wire running from your trampoline to the patio umbrella, but not physically attached to the radio in anyway? And the red wire with the loop is your ground wire physically attached to the copper ground pole in the earth, with your 7 or 8 wire turns, but not physically attached the radio, other than brought up close to the external body of the radio, which does seem to work. So the radio is inducting a signal from the red wire. I have an antique radio that has spring activated connections for an antenna, a ground, a short distance/local station connector and a long distance connector. I have recently finished a restoration on this Atwater-Kent, Model 55. As part of the restoration I had the tubes tested and 2 needed to be replaced. Upon turning on the unit, all the tubes have significant glow and I get some static through the speaker. I thought it was worth trying a cheapo AM loop antenna ( 2 wires, black and white) as an experiment. I don't think the antenna is suitable for a great distance. For a brief moment, 2 or 3 seconds maybe, I heard a voice, somewhere near the bottom end of the band, But that was it; I tried switching the black and white wire which made no difference. Would you think the antenna is too short/small or needs to be outside ? Looking for a suggestion. Otherwise all I'm getting is a small/weak amount of static across the band.

After having done a dozen of unsuccesful tries myself, one of which knocked my poor old dog down, I decided to bend the tree instead and found it was much easier than I thought it would be. Just be careful to not hold on to the tree and let it go. I wish I remembered that before, since it took all my lungs, 10 dogs from the local hunting club and a Bell helicopter from the local news to find and rescue me. I have no idea where my antenna finally ended up. I merely dare to listen to FM ever since ...and I bought a cat. Always be careful ! Thank you for your amazing and entertaining videos mate! 😊 This one was magic.

I was about to ask you for buying advice for a potential newbie until you echoed what I’ve read elsewhere which is that people just don’t use it much any longer. If it’s hard for someone experienced like you to find content, it would be even more difficult for someone new to the hobby. I wouldn’t be interested in listening to people preach religion on shortwave.

I totally CAN'T UNDESTAND THIS! 😐 You use a long copper pipe as the literal antenna, BUT You TOTALLY HIT THIS INTO THE ABSOLUTE _GROUND_. ??? What the heck?!

IMHO: THE BEST "LISTENING" FUN THAT I AND MY BROTHERS EVER HAD, ON OUR DAD'S OLD TUBE S-W RECEIVER, WAS WHEN WE TUNED IT IN, TO A LOUD DRONING SOUND, AND WE THEN PRETENDED THAT IT WAS THE SOUNDS OF OUR MULTI-ENGINES, ON OUR WWII BOMBERS..... OR, WE'D SOMETIMES GET BEEPS, AND WE'D BE IN A U-BOAT!!!... 99.999999% OF SHORTWAVE LISTENING WAS A COMPLET LET-DOWN, AND A JUST WASTE OF NOISE, AND OUR TIME!!!!!.....

you're boring as shit. get to the point and stop dragging out your conversation. am was also used for the visual carrier of analog tv.

wow - couldn't believe it when 830 WEEU in Reading came on !! my favorite station and the reason I was watching this video to find a better way to improve the reception !!

I really like The Tecsun ol-990 but so many reviews say it's lacking on so ,amy features that other models use.

do you notice any difference between the 205 and 207 Yacht Boy radios?

How would you use this in my truck, cant get any AM stations? Thanks

I want to ask...someone makes an antenna like that...and you put it on the am band.! Can an antenna like that also be used for the SW band...? Please explain because I'm still a layman

greetings from Berlin. If you stumble across this comment, just curious to see if you think the AN 1 is a decent enough antenna for shortwave listening. There is a seller in Germany offering a newish one in box and I am quite tempted, though not cheap. Generally | use portables outside with a reel antenna attached and generally that set up works quite well. Would the AN 1 add much to that? thanks, Andrew

Litz

Do you sell the sanyo RP 6000 radio

I've just been browsing the various radio channels and almost all of them are trying to sell me a radio after having received a freebee from the manufacturer. You'd think they'd be embarrassed, but no.

If I wanted to leave this up semi-permanent would it be wise to get a lightning arrestor? Do the "old fashioned" air-gap arrestors work? or do I need to spend $100 on a modern arrestor? Thanks!

Try it in the nighttime to get better reception. I wish Panny would bring it back.

You think we’re stupid fattie lol

Great Job, Tom, thank you for motivating me to do the same. Can you comment on how useful the 9:1 Un-Un is to a AM radio listner ?

23:30 Sounds like that woman is talking about the coronavirus, and I just noticed the date of your upload, I'm guessing things were about to get interesting for you not much later! Very nice antenna. Why is it called "random wire"? Isn't this just a type of long wire?

Will this work on a regular radio. I’m tired of not being able to listen to the ball game and want a decent channel

Excellent follow up to Part 1. Learned a lot, thanks!

Excellent educational video! Really pulled together and cleared up a lot of gaps a had regarding the association between the different bands. Felt like I was in a class listening to a knowledgeable professor. Thanks!

You need to get the capacitor as surplus as they are very expensive.

If you wrap the wire around the radio it works even better.

My antenna broke, too.

Thanks for the clearest explanation. Always been curious, now I understand.

Is it possible to replace theses 70s Style telescopic antennas with flex rubber antennas

In daytime I can barely get the local AM stations. At night I can regularly get AM stations from 600 miles away and the bands are crowded! It blows my mind that so many signals are just floating around and most people have no idea about them.

👋 Tom

Thanks for this. I ended up ordering the PL880 instead of the Crane Skywave because it has auto browse stored stations.

Quick question. Does the distance from the colied wire to the grounding section matter?

Very cool video man. Really appreciate all the information. I learned a lot from you. Great explanation. 👍

Really depends where you live and how polluted your area is with signals. For me it made a massive difference over shortwave. If I drive way out it makes no difference over a simple long whip antenna.

Thank you so much, sir, just for being there and I hope that you are well as there were no videos from you for months. I always thought that I was the only one (or one of very few) who does what you are doing here (in addition to short wave), especially during long drives or long walks that happen to be somewhere between 6pm and 6am or so. It is awesome to get MW stations that are supposed to be local (music, propaganda,...etc) from places that are up to 1000 miles away or more and to see how different the contents are even after a couple of evil creatures started buying everything recently. I once heard a commercial all the way from Richmond, VA about a "Gentlemen's Club" downtown!! Thank you for informing me (and many others through me) about the wonderful website/map that helps identifying the not-so-clear signals. During drives, it helps if what you're driving has tune+/tune- buttons in the steering wheel in addition to a scan and/or seek button. In long walks/hikes, allow me to suggest this little gym that I had 4 of through the years and I think is the best pocket MW DX radio ever made, the SANGEAN DT-180. First, you won't pay more than $30 if you find a new or "open box" one on ebay or goodwill or similar, but more importantly, they thought about every little feature of greatness and added it. The biggest thing is that you can fully use it while it is in your pocket, including rotating its axis as it is small enough. It has enough buttons that are at unique locations that you can feel in the dark without having to look. Other features are, power...it only uses 1 AAA battery that lasts forever with the default 90 min auto shutdown power on that can be bypassed by long press power on and the 90 minute limit can even be adjusted (when it shuts down due to depleted battery, I just take the battery out and clean the contact points and put it back to make it last a few more weeks). It is even anti accidental power button touches as you have to press it "for real" before it comes on. Another very important feature it excels at (that later more famous and very much more expensive ones, like the DT-400, skipped) is presets and memory as there is a separate button for every preset that you can use both ways (save or recall) from your pocket (5 buttons). There is a button for extra base if your earbuds/headphones are on the crappy side and a "lock" slide switch. They do not have some features that some people identify these days like USB charging the single battery (I think carrying an extra AAA battery rechargeable or not is more practical) or an external speaker or weather (no sense in that) but it does have a tiny super capacitor inside that keeps the presets and settings when changing the battery.

i still don't understand: how can i build an AM anthenna? i have a Sony HCD-GTZ3i and the AM anthenna is missing. how can i replace it?

Thanks for the instructive and useful video. You've just got a new subscriber. Videos about antennas for SWL aren't common, so I'm glad I've found this one. I have two questions: - unless I missed it, you don't tell exactly how long this antenna is. You mention 80ft = 24.38m at some point, so I guess that's it? - what do you do with the grounding wire? just lay it on the ground or actually ground it by connecting its end to some kind of copper rod plugged into the soil? Many thanks in advance if you can take a minute to reply to these questions. 73, Alain

Hope lightning doesn't strike it

I had the Tecsun PL-880 and I couldn't get ONE SW station from my house, but with the XHDATA D109 I received a solid 30 station with just the standard antenna. So the $40 XHDATA D109 outperforms the $180 Tecsun PL-880. The XHDATA D109 also has equivalent sound quality. I returned the Tecsun PL-880 and kept the much superior XHDATA D109.

This is great info, thank you

Purchased a rf 2600 for 30 dollars works great

What model of radio îs?

Thank You

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I have that same antenna, but the tantalum capacitor burned out and I don't know its value. I have searched the internet and have not found the schematic diagram. Could you please help me. Atte. Yerko

Starting about 1990 I worked in Asia. Some of the countries I worked did not have free press, so I bought a sw radio to pick up BBC and whatever else to feel not so isolated. I soon discovered KCNA from North Korea, which had the looniest hard core propaganda broadcasts. It was old school Stalinist newspeak, right out of 1984. It was the most entertaining thing I ever heard on the radio.

L😂😅😅🎉 L❤