LW/MW and FM antenna suggestion for old car radio (25 years old)

Thread Starter

AttacK

Joined Aug 17, 2020
13
First of all, i want to listen in my house, you can forget a car. It has been in the warehouse for a long time. Yesterday i tried it. Although I haven't connected an antenna yet, it still works. Because of it has 10-12 cm antenna plug cable probably. As it stands, FM is listened almost perfectly, but i want to improve it. And my main goal is listen to LW/MW. Now i can't listen anything. My first question is:
1) How can i listen LW/MW bands? You can give me a advice about most effective antenna(it can be DIY, i will so happy), because i don't have enough experience about RF, i am young learner :D
2) Actually this is not a question i think. Can i listen LW/MW and FM with same antenna? It would be very good.
 

Thread Starter

AttacK

Joined Aug 17, 2020
13
Car radios are designed to work with a simple telescopic antenna, so try just a vertical two foot wire.
Is it enough to listen LW/MW? Radio have two connection ports for antenna like ham radios. If I use a single wire, will it be enough?
 

SamR

Joined Mar 19, 2019
5,031
Indoor stereo AM/FM receivers used to come with a T-shaped "ladder line" Dipole antenna such as this. One terminal for the antenna input and another for the chassis ground. I've probably got a couple lying around here somewhere...

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nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,086
The body of the car acts as a counterpoise, so something to replace it is also needed.
It's not that critical. I've used a random length of wire in a pinch for a car AM/FM antenna on a wooden bench. A simple chassis connection to the utility power ground pin does help AM.
 

MrSalts

Joined Apr 2, 2020
2,767
The body of the car acts as a counterpoise, so something to replace it is also needed.
The guys in various car audio shops & junk yards I’ve seen over my lifetime must be amazing RF engineers. What they could so with a telescoping antenna must be a miracle.
 
he body of the car acts as a counterpoise, so something to replace it is also needed.

I basically used a telescoping car antenna in the house when I worked on car radios. Wooden mount. Nothing special.

I was given an old tereplane (it's a car) radio which was thrown out by my father. The antenna was a long wire that ran under the wooden floor of the vehicle. No wonder why they call the bottom of the inside of the car "the Floorboards"

On one vehicle I used an Blaupunkt active AM antenna with an external FM pre-amp. Toyota used a radio made by Fugitsu 10 that would get like 2 stations without a pre-amp. They left that part out. It even provided regulated power for the pre-amp that it didn't have. I used it as the "Remote" lead which, of course, was slow turning on and off.
 

SamR

Joined Mar 19, 2019
5,031
Reminded me of my uncle Sam's 41 Ford pickup truck. Had this HUGE AM tube radio that was designed to straddle the transmission "hump" on the floorboard. Don't remember if there was even a radio cutout slot on the dash.
 

Ya’akov

Joined Jan 27, 2019
9,077
It's not that critical. I've used a random length of wire in a pinch for a car AM/FM antenna on a wooden bench. A simple chassis connection to the utility power ground pin does help AM.
It's not critical for strong local stations, but if you want to listen to, say, a clear channel like WLS from a few hundred miles away, you'll need a ground plane.

On FM it's less important because all stations are local and the frequency is high.
 
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nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,086
It's not critical for string local stations, but if you want to listen to, say, a clear channel like WLS from a few hundred miles away, you'll need a ground plane.

On FM it's less important because all stations are local and the frequency is high.
or a border blaster like XEG we listened to as kids.

 
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