I have a stereo receiver in my house and I get pretty poor am reception…however if I am in my car right outside my house, my car stereo gets fine reception. The receiver has 2 screws on the back for an AM antenna. I tried rigging one up but it didn’t relly help. any ideas?
WAG. Many AM receivers have ferrite rod antennas. These are directional, i.e. there is a preferred direction for maximum reception. Try rotating the receiver.
The AM receivers in car radios are usually of higher quality and sensitivity than the AM receivers in hi-fi equipment, where AM is an afterthought and done on the cheap.
rotating the receiver is not really an option because it is built into the entertianment center
Well, let’s see. You tried an antenna in the antenna connection. That didn’t work. The receiver is unratatable, even as a test to see if antenna directivity is the problem.
I guess you’re out of luck.
Are you sure those terminals are for an AM antenna? Normally those type receivers have terminals for an external FM antenna, and the only AM antenna they use is an internal loopstick. Did you notice any difference in the FM reception when you hooked up your antenna to those terminals? Are there possibly two sets of external antenna connectors? (Maybe there is one set for AM and one for AM). What kind of antenna did you connect to the terminals? For a piece of wire to do you much good as far as AM reception goes, it would need to be pretty long, say at least 25 or 30 feet, and the higher the better. It would probably work better if the radio were also grounded. There are places such as Crane that sell special amplified AM antennas using small loopsticks. http://www.ccrane.com/antennas/am-antennas/twin-coil-ferrite-am-antenna.aspx
Why type of antenna did you try? A single piece of hook up wire should work for AM.
I’ve seen many stereo receivers that come with an external ferrite rod antenna that is supposed to be attached to the AM antenna terminals on the back of the receiver. These antennas often get lost or broken.
Here’s a suggestion: oft-times cable companies distribute AM and FM radio signals over the cable on FM frequencies. If this is the case in your area, assuming you have cable, then if you hook the cable up to the FM antenna jack (which is usually a coax jack), you’ll get perfect reception. Check with your cable company to see if they do this, and if so what frequencies the stations you’re interested in can be found at.
there are 4 terminals, 2 for FM 2 for AM. I just hooked a wire to one of the AM terminals which helped a little…when I connected it to both am terminals it was horrible
See
How to Get Better AM Radio Reception
Decent AM reception takes a decent AM front end, something many modern home stereo systems do not have. A small, high quality AM table radio would be a better overall solution.
Another thing to consider is interference. Is the AM signal you’re trying to receive too weak and in need of an antenna to boost signal strength OR is it being blocked by some sort of local (in your house noise), like a computer, light dimmer, TV set, video game, leaky cable TV coax…the list goes on and on.
Your car receiver will be less prone to this interference since its outside your house and not connected to the AC mains that bring all that noise and interference right into your stereo HiFi receiver.