Crappy AM reception

[Andyman]

Anyone have a cure for crappy AM reception, besides switching to FM?? Or going for a drive in the car ??

Everynow and then I want to listen to AM for news or sports and all I get is noisy, buzzing, hideous reception. And that's on 5 different receivers in 5 different locations, and a pocket transistor radio. All I'm using now are the built in black "handles" on the receivers. My father in law pitched some nasty Magnavox portable because it's reception was poor, but he's got a rat's nest of computer and power cables in his room, so perhaps that's the reason for interference.

I don't have any giant powerlines or towers around here, just your average older, suburban neighboorhood with regular power poles.

Any tricks/suggestions out there??

 

[Dan ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ]

Welp, I'd guess there is probably alot of noise coming from within your house. (You know, like in 'Poltergeist' ) Many things these days using switching power supplies. They are smaller, cost less to manufacture, produce lots of current and....noise . Lots and lots of noise. They are used in DVD players, TV's, computer power supplies, you name it. And just because those devices may be turned off, their PS's aren't. If they are plugged up, they are on. So, my first suggestion is for you to turn on your AM radio and one by one, unplug every above-mentioned electronic device in your home and see what happens. Also, don't discount nightlights with light sensors, or those *touch me to turn me on* lamps. Those things are noisy too. One other thing. You may have a street light somewhere near your house that's arcing. I had a cycling noise here that was obliterating SW and driving me crazy. Finally traced it down to a street light with a bad sensor and a bad bulb! (The city replaced it) If all of that fails, you may have to resort to putting up a longwire outside your house. But, for that to capture the entire AM band, it has to be really long!

 

[Andyman]

Well I guess these 5 computers and 3 TVs we have here may be messing things up, eh?
But what about the attached garage? The receiver out there is at least 40 feet and a couple walls from the closest computer and all that's running out there is the freezer?
I guess if a street lamp outside can mess you up, computers sure can.

Looks like I'm going for a drive to get my AM :cry:

 

[Dan ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ]

Certainly. The lower the frequency, the more prone it is for interference. Remember, AM broadcast is below Shortwave! Ever tried listening to the Longwave band below AM? Damn near impossible. You can almost hear the earth fart on those frequencies. Check for sources of interference out in and around your garage too!

 

[Lazarus Short]

It may have a lot to do with the sun, the ozone...

...and solar flares, all that stuff. The solar system seems to be going through some major changes, and the Sun is rather active these days. You can read all about it on Richard Hoagland's site, The Enterprise Mission, "Going where SOMEONE has gone before." Fascinating stuff... :scratch2: :yes:

Laz

 

[mhardy6647]

Interestingly, there are two fields involved in RF (you probably knew this already), electric and magnetic. Trusting my frail memory, most of the (man-made) interference effects the electric field, not the magneticYou can make (or buy) antennas that respond to the magnetic field. I think Ramsey has (or had one): www.ramseyelectronics.com. If your interference problem is directional, a good loop antenna may help you a lot. You can build your own (google AM broadcast loop antenna or something like that) or you can buy one. The "Select-A-Tenna" is an inductively coupled loop that works well. I got one cheap at an antique radio fleamarket, but they are available new from many vendors (e.g., C.C. Crane Co. http://www.ccrane.com/ ).

Use a good AM radio. The GE Superadio III is still the best bang for the buck, IMO.

There's all sorts of natural "interference", especially on the longwave band (< 550 kHz). Do a search for "spherics" or "dawn chorus" on Google sometime

 

[ron-c]

If your AM antenna is within 6 or eight feet of any CD, DVD, or running microprocessor you will not receive AM. With the McIntosh TM-1 tuner module we include a powered AM antenna that contains the first stage of the AM tuner. When this antenna is within 6 or 8 feet of the system all you hear is buzzing but as you walk away from the system the noise drops away and only the signal remains.
Of course this means all modern receivers will not get AM as they have micros and digital to analog converters running inside and their antennas have a 6" lead.

Ron-C

 

[Jeffhs]

I gave up on AM, for the most part, months ago. In addition to the interference from the CPU in my computer and generally high noise levels in the apartment building where I live, the AM stations' signals aren't that strong here anyway. Five years ago, I moved from a well-populated Cleveland suburb to a small town 45 miles from all Cleveland AM, FM and TV stations and am resigned to the fact that my AM reception is and will be poor here, even without my computer operating. Cleveland only has six AM stations anyhow, not counting the ones in the suburbs. Every one of the city's own stations is talk, news-talk, religion or sports, no music. Heck, even the oldies station dropped its format almost three weeks ago in favor of syndicated talk, making it the last AM station in the Cleveland area to do so.

To my way of thinking, there is absolutely nothing worth listening to on AM radio anymore (except for a couple programs on WJR and CKLW from Detroit on weekends), so the reception problems I mentioned above do not even concern me any longer. I have had digital cable (with 30+ CD-quality music channels) for over a year, so even the mediocre FM programming from Cleveland doesn't bother me either. The city's AM and FM stations could all go digital at midnight tonight and it wouldn't, indeed will not, make a shred of difference to me. I would (and will, if such a thing ever happens) just switch on my cable box and get my music through it (not to mention my own ever-growing music collection on cassettes and CDs), as I already do now. Personal music collections, as I have said before, are many times better than radio because all radio stations are programmed according to Arbitron ratings, which reflect the general public's radio tastes and preferences; our personal music libraries, OTOH, reflect our own tastes in music and are not influenced in any way by national music surveys, ratings or anything else.

So, again, I will not mourn the passing of analog FM radio, if and when. (AM could go digital tomorrow and I wouldn't care, either.) Until or unless AM radio eventually becomes the variety music medium it once was, which I doubt it ever will, my digital audio system's tuner will remain set on FM, but most of my listening will be to cable music channels and my own music collection.

I wouldn't be surprised if many listeners, disgusted with the lack of variety on AM and FM, eventually will be doing or have done the same thing. With cable music channels, there are no reception problems. The same goes for listening to tapes or CDs; there is a heck of a lot more satisfaction to be gained from the latter as well, for reasons I mentioned above.

 

[gyusher]

Good AM

I too love talk radio from the crappy little local yokels in the AM (no pun intended) to the late night weierdos. . .

I have only two tuners that excell at AM radio. . . One is a entry level Yamaha TX-492, thats listed for sale in the for sale dept. . . The other is my latest heart throb a Sansui TU-717. . .

I would expect the Sansui to be decent at AM but the Yamaha. . . which BTW is the best AM tuner I have seen, even better than my car. . . is a surprise. You can hardly touch the tune button without finding an AM station. . .

There is a local AM station here that reduces power after 7PM and untill around 7AM, as usual those are the times I want to listen, most of the time I live with noise during those times but not with the Yamaha or my old tube type Zenith table radio, forgot about that guy, it also excells in AM.

I have ran wire antennas out the window, across the roof, on and on. . . but these two tuners (sansui and Yamaha) hardly need an antenna period.

 

[Dan ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ]

The best AM you can buy on the cheap has to be the GE Superadio III. Has selectable bandwidth and external antenna terminals. Fidelity is excellent thru it's two-way speaker system or the stereo headphone mini jack. Build quality is only so-so on them. I ended up tweaking the scale alignment on mine. But hey for the little money spent, you can't beat it. I'm in NE Arkansas and listened to a station in Omaha, NB on it the other night.

 

[devoid]

I vote for the Sansui 5000 A or X. Excellent 3 gang AM section. Very selective and cheap and plentifull on the bay.

 

[asynchronousman]

Interesting...

Once my computer gets out of black screen "DOS" mode, the AM reception quiets right nicely...I had a 350 K6/2 that almost perfectly NULLED 100.3 MHz also. However, when operating this computer wipes out everything past 25 meters or so on my Halli (AM is fine). I have FOUR radios in this corner, five if you count the Bearcat. This computer OR the monitor puts a dot pattern on broadcast channel 4 too.

I bought a Select-A-Tenna used when I bought my GF's Philco. I have no clue what it does other than look big, round and brown. Damn thing couldn't wake Lazarus, but if they sell a bazillion of 'em it must need a cap changed :lmao:

I get all the usual nighttime crap I normally get, only TEN TIMES more George Noory. Solar flares are a b----

I'm betting there is a local amateur radio club in your area who can definitely help you. Give them a call. You may even find a MUSIC station other than Radio Dizzy (THAT'S music)?

Interestingly, there are two fields involved in RF (you probably knew this already), electric and magnetic. Trusting my frail memory, most of the (man-made) interference effects the electric field, not the magneticYou can make (or buy) antennas that respond to the magnetic field. I think Ramsey has (or had one): www.ramseyelectronics.com. If your interference problem is directional, a good loop antenna may help you a lot. You can build your own (google AM broadcast loop antenna or something like that) or you can buy one. The "Select-A-Tenna" is an inductively coupled loop that works well. I got one cheap at an antique radio fleamarket, but they are available new from many vendors (e.g., C.C. Crane Co. http://www.ccrane.com/ ).

Use a good AM radio. The GE Superadio III is still the best bang for the buck, IMO.

There's all sorts of natural "interference", especially on the longwave band (< 550 kHz). Do a search for "spherics" or "dawn chorus" on Google sometime

 

[asynchronousman]

The best AM you can buy on the cheap has to be the GE Superadio III. Has selectable bandwidth and external antenna terminals. Fidelity is excellent thru it's two-way speaker system or the stereo headphone mini jack. Build quality is only so-so on them. I ended up tweaking the scale alignment on mine. But hey for the little money spent, you can't beat it. I'm in NE Arkansas and listened to a station in Omaha, NB on it the other night.

I'm near Boise and get KRVN regularly. Can you receive KNX?

PS NB is the abbreviation for New Brunswick Canada. If there is an Omaha there, that would be impressive reception I can get New Mexico fine, but Saskatchewan (sp) evades me (CKY in Regina was my lowest frequency for confirmed AM stereo reception, and it took the then-KFXD going off the air to hear it. Of course, Rogers seems to like to burn exciters so that's ancient history).

 

[luvvinvinyl]

asm... Saskatchewan is spelled correctly in your post. You get the gold star, eh?

 

[Dan ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ]

I'm pretty sure it was KRVN, although you wouldn't think it was possible. Nope, haven't ever picked up anything out of California as far as I know. However, I can pick up some stations in the far north-east. Around here listening to Louisville Kentucky, Cincinnatti Ohio, Chicago and stations out of Texas if easy to do at night. I'm not that far from Nashville, but WSM can be tricky, mainly because they radiate in a directional pattern away from here.

 

[asynchronousman]

I gave up on AM, for the most part, months ago. In addition to the interference from the CPU in my computer and generally high noise levels in the apartment building where I live, the AM stations' signals aren't that strong here anyway. Five years ago, I moved from a well-populated Cleveland suburb to a small town 45 miles from all Cleveland AM, FM and TV stations and am resigned to the fact that my AM reception is and will be poor here, even without my computer operating. Cleveland only has six AM stations anyhow, not counting the ones in the suburbs. Every one of the city's own stations is talk, news-talk, religion or sports, no music. Heck, even the oldies station dropped its format almost three weeks ago in favor of syndicated talk, making it the last AM station in the Cleveland area to do so.
~~~~snip
So, again, I will not mourn the passing of analog FM radio, if and when. (AM could go digital tomorrow and I wouldn't care, either.) Until or unless AM radio eventually becomes the variety music medium it once was, which I doubt it ever will, my digital audio system's tuner will remain set on FM, but most of my listening will be to cable music channels and my own music collection.

I wouldn't be surprised if many listeners, disgusted with the lack of variety on AM and FM, eventually will be doing or have done the same thing. With cable music channels, there are no reception problems. The same goes for listening to tapes or CDs; there is a heck of a lot more satisfaction to be gained from the latter as well, for reasons I mentioned above.

I feel deeply sad for you, an amateur radio operator who cut his teeth on AM and no doubt felt the joys of that first DX contact and all the marvels simple AMPLITUDE modulation were capable of, and probably really enjoyed a lot of great music from Cleveland, Cinncy, Motown, Ontario...I wish for you the same happy fate I have someday. That is the local 5kw heritage station got taken over by somebody that hates empty talk entertainment and turned it into a full-service outlet with really GREAT music. I have rediscovered the band I've always loved yet again. KSRV is almost all I listen to unless FM is the only thing available, or I listen to the standard station if I'm out of secondary contour range (it gets sloppy in Boise).

Now playing at 1380 kc-Angela (theme from Taxi) by Bob James

 

[asynchronousman]

Wsm

I'm pretty sure it was KRVN, although you wouldn't think it was possible. Nope, haven't ever picked up anything out of California as far as I know. However, I can pick up some stations in the far north-east. Around here listening to Louisville Kentucky, Cincinnatti Ohio, Chicago and stations out of Texas if easy to do at night. I'm not that far from Nashville, but WSM can be tricky, mainly because they radiate in a directional pattern away from here.

Do they still play COUNTRY MUSIC or did they do a "TNN"?

It looks to me like you are in a radio "desert" and we are "flooded"

I've never IDed WBAP, WOAI is all too easy WMAQ (last I heard was the Score or something) once came in under KBOI during a quiet period and I've received WCCO Minneapolis (and the TV too) but this was years ago.

 

[Dan ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ]

Do they still play COUNTRY MUSIC or did they do a "TNN"?

It looks to me like you are in a radio "desert" and we are "flooded"

I've never IDed WBAP, WOAI is all too easy WMAQ (last I heard was the Score or something) once came in under KBOI during a quiet period and I've received WCCO Minneapolis (and the TV too) but this was years ago.

Yep, WOAI is stronger than most local stations. KRVN was just jabber when I was listening to them. They may have been running "Cow Talk" for all I know.

 

[asynchronousman]

Yep, WOAI is stronger than most local stations.

You mean +louder+ than most stations...if they don't say W-O-A-I every 8 seconds, I think CC may fire them...it's like an airport beacon! :lmao: :thumbsdn:

I'd rather be known for FRITOS if I were a Texan

 

[Dan ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ]

You mean +louder+ than most stations...if they don't say W-O-A-I every 8 seconds, I think CC may fire them...it's like an airport beacon!

This is true!