Stereo Receiver Tuner Help

[Guest137]

Hello,

I have an Onkyo TX-38 stereo receiver and I do not know how to use the radio tuner on it. I do not know anything about tuners, unfortunately. Do I need to buy a radio antenna and hook it up to my receiver? If so, could someone please explain to me how to hook up the antenna and how to operate the tuner? I look forward to hearing your guys' advice!



Thanks,

 

[Aspen]

yes, it needs an antenna. I piece of wire hooked up to the antenna input on the back will get you started.

I found a pic. There are black screw type connectors for the antenna on the back. Attach your 3 ft piece of wire to one of the fm inputs. The select FM on the front and hit the seek/tuning button on the front. You should be able to find strong FM stations, if it still works.

To improve tuning get some old rabbit ears antenna or a T-shaped wire fm antenna to hang on the wall.

 

[teal'c]

When you look at the back, in the upper left are the antenna connections. If you go to ebay and search rabbit ear fm you'll get an idea of what you're looking for.
I don't know how good the tuner is in those, or where you live, but city dweellers can often hear some stations without an antenna, country folk can need a far better antenna than the rabbit ears.
Wire, coat hanger, whatever metal you can think of will work if you want to experiment, a good length to start with is around 4 foot.

 

[teal'c]

As for the tuning, push input selection button tuner, then the long skinny buttons with the right and left arrows are how you change stations.
You do need speakers.

 

[Guest137]

yes, it needs an antenna. I piece of wire hooked up to the antenna input on the back will get you started.

I found a pic. There are black screw type connectors for the antenna on the back. Attach your 3 ft piece of wire to one of the fm inputs. The select FM on the front and hit the seek/tuning button on the front. You should be able to find strong FM stations, if it still works.

To improve tuning get some old rabbit ears antenna or a T-shaped wire fm antenna to hang on the wall.

Thank you both for responding! I already identified these screw connectors, but I do not understand how they work. Do I just wrap wire around them and pinch them down with the screws? I also forgot to add in the original post that I wanted to know if I need two separate antennas to get both a FM and AM signal. Could you please answer that question, as well?

 

[Guest137]

As for the tuning, push input selection button tuner, then the long skinny buttons with the right and left arrows are how you change stations.
You do need speakers.

I have speakers; I guess I should have made that more clear. I have had my stereo system setup for 2 or 3 years now, and it consists of an Onkyo C-7030, the Onkyo TX-38, and a pair of JBL G300 speakers. I also have an RCA to 3.5mm audio cable that allows me to connect my computer monitor to my stereo system which I used as the display for my Roku Express streaming device.

 

[teal'c]

You can do bare wires, or some antennas come with connectors attached, or you can add your own.
Looks like for yours you do. Lots of them come with an antenna attached for AM. You need an AM loop antenna.

 

[Aspen]

Look up am loop antenna, but really is there anything on AM that interests you?

 

[Aspen]

Two more things. The amount of FM antenna you need is very much dependent on where you are and where the transmitting station is. If you are in say a concrete basement, then you are going to have issues. If you are way out in the country then you will likely need an outdoor antenna. If you are in city above ground a piece of wire will do for most close stations.
Also your tuner needs to be working, sometimes these old girls die out from bad or weak components.

 

[toxcrusadr]

If you are having trouble tuning in a weak station, look for an FM Muting button or sometimes the Stereo-Mono button will affect tuning. It takes more signal to tune in FM Stereo so on a weak station Mono will bring it in better. Muting cuts out the hash between stations (for old analog tuners) but again it can require a stronger signal if you use it.

If you love that receiver you should find a manual for it online. Might be posted somewhere for free even.

 

[Guest137]

If you are having trouble tuning in a weak station, look for an FM Muting button or sometimes the Stereo-Mono button will affect tuning. It takes more signal to tune in FM Stereo so on a weak station Mono will bring it in better. Muting cuts out the hash between stations (for old analog tuners) but again it can require a stronger signal if you use it.

If you love that receiver you should find a manual for it online. Might be posted somewhere for free even.

Thank you for your advice. To my knowledge, there is not a copy of the manual for my model online. It was handed down to me by my grandfather so the original manual is long gone.

 

[Guest137]

This is what the inputs for my receiver look like. This is not my picture, but this is the same model that I have (Onkyo TX-38). I am not familiar with a connection like this. Could someone please share an antenna that would plug into the input labeled "FM"? I am also curious about what type of cable/wire connects into the "AM" and input on the left of it looks like.

 

[Guest137]

I have one more quick question; is that 75 ohm FM input the same as the coaxial input on a television? I know that someone earlier recommended bunny ears. Could I just plug a bunny ears TV antenna into that input?

 

[WaynerN]

Do you live in a rural or urban area. If urban, you can get by with an inexpensive loop antenna. If you live in a rural area like I do, you might need a great big antenna on top of the roof. Rabbit ears (NOT BUNNY EARS) will only work in urban areas.

 

[the skipper]

Are you not in the US? That FM connector is not what is used in typical US market tuners/receivers. Here, they use "F" connectors. like this.


I'm not sure what yours is called. Maybe someone else can help you here.

For AM, a long piece of wire should suffice.

 

[Guest137]

Are you not in the US? That FM connector is not what is used in typical US market tuners/receivers.

For AM, a long piece of wire should suffice.

I do live in the U.S.. The stereo receiver was designed in Japan, if that changes anything.

 

[Guest137]

Sorry for the confusion! Here are two pictures I just took of my actual unit. I find it interesting that the other picture I posted that I got off of Google Images had a different connection type, even though it is the same model as mine. Anyways, could someone share a picture, video, or just a step-by-step tutorial on how to connect an antenna to this type of input?

 

[DaveVoorhis]

Sorry for the confusion! Here are two pictures I just took of my actual unit. I find it interesting that the other picture I posted that I got off of Google Images had a different connection type, even though it is the same model as mine.

It's a common connector in the UK.

Anyways, could someone share a picture, video, or just a step-by-step tutorial on how to connect an antenna to this type of input?

Get two lengths of insulated wire, say about three metres. Scrape off about a quarter inch of insulation from each wire. Loosen the two 300 ohm screws, wrap the bare wire ends under the screw, and screw them down enough to secure the wires. They shouldn't be tight, just snug enough to hold the wires. String the wires out straight in roughly opposite directions; off the floor if possible. Turn the unit on and try tuning in stations.

For the AM side, same thing but use one wire.

For this initial attempt, you don't need to connect any wires to the screw with the symbol that looks like a rake. It's the ground connector.

 

[dr*audio]

You need a Balun transformer and a proper FM dipole antenna:
Balun:
https://www.amazon.com/Philips-SWV2020-17-Balun-Transformer/dp/B000HSITJO
FM Dipole:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000M9ERE...99b2-43be6850100e&ie=UTF8&qid=1536874402&sr=1

You screw the U shaped connectors on the antenna into the screw terminals on the balun, then the balun pushes onto the 75 Ohm connector on the back of the receiver.
To use AM you need an AM loop antenna:
https://www.amazon.com/Fancasee-Ant...id=1536874560&sr=1-3&keywords=am+loop+antenna

 

[DaveVoorhis]

Anyways, could someone share a picture, video, or just a step-by-step tutorial on how to connect an antenna to this type of input?

Alternatively, if you've got a pair of old TV rabbit ears, loosen the 300 ohm screws on the receiver, tuck the fork lugs from the rabbit ears under the screws, and tighten them just enough hold the lugs. Position the rabbit ears in a 'V', turn on the receiver and try tuning in stations.

This and the wire technique I described above will work well in areas with strong local stations. If you're out in the boonies, you'll need more sophisticated antennae.