AM Radio (not woodworking)

About once a month I get together with a small group of local friends primarily to talk about living in the hinterboonies and all the topics adjacent to homesteading.  Lately the topic of communication has been prominent as we’ve been talking about using small walkie-talkie type tools to keep in touch in the event of the phone or power systems going down (not a crazy paranoia out here where one or the other goes out occasionally).  Last week I talked about my six decades of experience listening.  In that arena I’ve found listening to AM and shortwave to be useful and entertaining.  Here is what I talked about, in part.  I figured there had to be one or two of you interested in this topic.  If I’m wrong?  The sun will still come up tomorrow morning.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

If there are regional power/internet outages -– we have experienced week-long outages in both Maryland and here in Virginia, and getting news was nearly impossible – alternatives for knowing what is going on are useful.  I have found that AM and Shortwave radio listening are really useful for that task.  Most stereo systems have dreadful AM receivers and are not useful tools for AM listening.  Instead I have tried out dozens of units over the decades and hands-down the best performance/best value are the portable radios based on the GE SupeRadio platform.  Obviously GE started the platform as a consumer product but many, many other companies followed suit, either borrowing, licensing, or stealing the design and technology.  I’ve seen many new models on the marketplace that look similar but have not tried them out.  I would suggest looking ebay to find a gently used one or even occasionally a new-old-stock version, prices ranging from $15-75.  I bought mine for about $20 back in the mezozoic era.  They are still so cheap and available I honestly would not bother with anything else.

 

These models have good long internal AM ferrite rod antennae, and analog tuning.

 

A critical additional accessory is an inductive antenna, a/k/a an external tunable loop AM antenna.  These devices are set adjacent to the radio, usually perpendicular to the unit, and increase the sensitivity by up to a hundred-fold by adjusting the potential of the copper wire loop with a rheostat, “tuning” the antenna to the station on the radio.  They operate much like a magnifying glass for visible light, but only in the much longer RF electromagnetic frequencies.  Just as a magnifying glass amplifies and focuses light, the tunable loop antenna focuses radio waves onto the internal antenna of the radio.

 

The loop antenna I showed was one of several I bought from Radio Shack 40-50 years ago for about $20 IIRC.  I have not seen another one like it for at least 30 years.  The only loop antennas I know still on the market are made by Grundig and certainly would work just fine.  I’ve never looked to see how available they are.  The Grundig tunable loop antenna is based on an earlier design called the Terk , a version of which is currently on the Walmart site for $45.  The Cadillac of tunable loop antennas is called the Select-A-Tenna, of which I have two.  I have not seen one of these since forever.  Mine cost about $80 each new, and I still find them from time to time on ebay.

 

I cannot overemphasize the necessity for these inductive tunable loop antennas.  They can make a pocket transistor radio pull in stations from unbelievable distances.  Even at dusk during our meeting I was able to use my $20 radio and $20 antenna to easily pull in signals from St. Louis, Chicago and Detroit.  In the middle of the night you can occasionally get stations from Canada all the way to South America.

 

This is an inexpensive and high-performance way to get information from a great distance away.  The utility of that should be self evident.

 

The other radio platform I used was a shortwave receiver-only unit.  This is where some real money can be spent.  My experience has shown that the best quality/value brands are Sony, Sangean, and Grundig.  They are not cheap, the one I showed you was probably $300 in 1980.  I cannot remember if I brought my Sony 2002 or 7600 model.  The Sangean 909 I showed you was bought at Radio Shack for about $200 way back then.  A long lost treasure was my Sony 2010 monster portable multiband radio.  Its motherboard got fried way back when.  (CME?  Hmmmm.)  A $750 radio down the hole.  It had digital tuning and I could even pick up signals from the eastern slope of the Rockies with that baby combined with a loop antenna.

 

Both the Sony and Sangean portable multiband radios I’ve normally used were digital tuners, many times programmable with station memories.

 

Very good deals on portable shortwave radios, usually referred to as “portable multiband radio” are available at ebay.  I just saw one identical to my Sony 2002 (but in black rather than silver) for about $25 over there.  I see a lot of similar-looking radios on the Walmart website but usually do not recognize the maker.  If you know what to look for high-quality vintage radios are out there in great quantities, hundreds on ebay right now.

 

As with standard AM radios, an antenna accessory is critical to the performance of a portable shortwave.  You gotta, gotta, gotta have a wire reel or spool antenna that can be used in concert with the retractable FM antenna on the unit.  I recall mine being about $7 from Radio Shack.  CCrane radio has them for about $15, Amazon has a Sangean model for about $30.

 

Fix the wire antenna fitting to the extension antenna on the radio, then get the wire as high as you can while running as much as you can horizontally.

 

And don’t forget batteries.  I buy lots of them, they last for a decade or two in cool, dry storage conditions.  Rechargeable batteries are also an excellent option, I’ve found the Energizer brand to be excellent.  You can get 110v plug in chargers but you should also have some off-grid charging capacity.