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home made AM loop antenna

C

cov1978

New Member
I bought a new Marantz AV NR1600 receiver which comes with a small 8" loop antenna for AM radio. The AM reception is not great. I would like better AM reception so I am constructing a larger AM loop antenna about 35" square, per this tutorial:

http://www.hard-core-dx.com/nordicdx/antenna/loop/amloop.html

Most of the online instructions for home made loop antennas require an external capacitor from an old radio to work with the loop antenna, but I think they are linking up to old AM radios. I just want to hook mine up to the same 2 wire AM input on the back of the Marantz receiver that takes the existing loop antenna. Do I need a capacitor for this? Do I need a transformer to change the ohmage? Or will it work just plugged in directly?

Thanks
 
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The RF stage you have just attached to the radio will not, unfortunately, track the tuning of your radio. You will need to tune the radio first, then tune the antenna. You might have to go back a forth a couple of times for maximum gain. Sometimes the new antenna will overload the radio because it has so much gain. You might have to de-tune it slightly to receive the station you want.
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As the site says... (EDIT: assuming that the receiver's original antenna is part of a tuned circuit) there's nothing really different about your receiver's AM section and any AM transistor radio. Finding a surplus AM air-variable capacitor shouldnt' be too hard -- harvest one from an old radio, or check surplus stores. www.tubesandmore.com used to have 'em; I don't know if they do any more.

... or you can buy a purpose-built antenna tuner -- here's a more-or-less random example. http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/preamps/2964.html

The more you can do to tune/match your antenna to your receiver, the better, I'd opine.
 
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Random idea: harvest an AM antenna from an old Multi-band radio ? Those things get Great AM reception because they had to in their prime.
 
You can shield your loop antenna by making the loop out of shielded cable, but the shield must not be connected in a loop, just ground it and keep then other end open-looped.
 
Good suggestion a couple of posts back: the Terk is said to be pretty good.

(Arguably) even better, though, if you can find one, is a Selec-A-Tenna. Sadly, these are no longer made. They weren't very expensive, although I don't know what the going rate on the used market might be.

IMG_0335 by mhardy6647, on Flickr

In this photo, I was listening to WBZ in Boston (1030 kHz, 50 kW clear channel) at our house ca. 110 miles from the transmitter -- mid-day. Not listenable with the tuner's built in AM antenna -- good reception with the Select-A-Tenna.

EDIT In fact, the Terk is said by some to provide similar performance.
http://www.radiointel.com/review-2loop.htm
 
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The Terk is the best present day option, I ordered one for a friend but make my own bcb helper loops for my own use.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
 
Pio1980 said:
The Terk is the best present day option, I ordered one for a friend but make my own bcb helper loops for my own use.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
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Depends how much money you want to spend:yes:

Theres kiwa, wellbrook,pixel labratories, etc all who which make great am loop antennas.
 
mhardy6647 said:
The Kiwa is, AFAIK, no longer in production. I don't know about the others.
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Seems your right about the kiwa,its been awhile since ive looked for a antenna just for am.pixel technologies makes a magnetic loop for am but theyre not cheap.wellbrook is based out of the uk and also makes a good low band loop antennna.

http://www.wellbrook.uk.com/antennashop/index.php?route=common/home

http://www.pixelsatradio.com

I just recently picked up the pixel pro 1b shortwave magnetic loop and hooked it up to a rotatator and it performs fantastic but you really need the rotator to turn it and null out interference.if just for am id try the am2 which is much cheaper.

Heres another alternative
http://dxtools.com/QX.htm
 
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