AM (mediumwave) DXing? Anyone else ever tried it?

[Andy1845c]

Just curious if anyone else here enjoys the hobby or has ever tired it. I've dabbled in it since I was a kid. Last winter I built a 4 foot box loop antenna and am amazed how much better it works then any long wire "beverage" antenna I have ever had.

 

[HiTech]

You're gonna love this web site!!!! Get yourself a GE Superradio III and go at it. Construct a large loop antenna on the back of a door to your room, swing the door to position the antenna as needed... tune in the world!

**broken link removed**

 

[RadioRon]

Just curious if anyone else here enjoys the hobby or has ever tired it. I've dabbled in it since I was a kid. Last winter I built a 4 foot box loop antenna and am amazed how much better it works then any long wire "beverage" antenna I have ever had.

I'm not into it lately, but a few years back I built a couple of large loop antennas for use by others. One application was to pull in better signal to a cabin in a remote area. This worked very well using a cardboard box, some copper wire and a tuning capacitor ripped out of a pocket receiver. These antennas are so easy to make and result in such a huge sensitivity improvement that it is one of my favorite "secret weapons" used to amaze your friends. Its especially magical since you don't even have to connect to their radio, just place the big loop nearby and tune the capacitor. If some of you haven't tried this before, you need to give it a go since its quite an eye-opener when you start with a weak station on your receiver, then bring this antenna close by and tune it. The improvement in signal is enormous.

There are several good websites for AM dx'ing in North America where they discuss the best radios and such. I'm not a fan of any particular radio, but I did buy myself a Boston Acoustics Receptor radio a couple of years ago and find it is extremely good for my purposes. I think that the radio show "Coast to Coast AM" with Art Bell/George Noory has stimulated new interest in long range AM dx'ing due to the show's popularity in North America. It runs late at night and is quite entertaining. And AM still works very well for talk radio such as this show. There's something special about listening to a show whose subjects are sometimes creepy through a bit of real radio static rather than off-the-web.

 

[Andy1845c]

Well, I am glad i'm not the only one thats tried it.

I really get a kick out of seeing how far I can hear on these cold Minnesota nights. I had WABC out of New York one night. It wasn't coming in the best, but I was still pretty cool.

I have yet to hear from the west coast, not sure if that pushing it or not. Thats kinda my next goal. I'm not in the best location though, down in the Minnesota river valley.

I made my loop on a wooden frame and used a tuning cap out of an old AM pocket radio. That project really sparked my interest in electronics in general. I was amazed at how well the loop worked and how I could null the local AM stations That was my original goal, as I live less then a mile from a am/fm tower. The only issue with my loop is it is dead at both ends of the dial. It works great in the middle freqs., but dosn't have range for the top and bottom of the AM brodcast band. I remember reading somthing on how to adjust this, but I can't remember now.

For a receiver I have a Hallicrafters S-38. http://www.arsmachina.com/halli38.htm
Certinly not as good as a modern transistor unit, but I got it for 3 bucks at an auction and have had many happy hours listening to it

 

[HiTech]

All that effort to tune in Rush Limbaugh!!

You should tune in to the SW bands and listen to the pure BS propaganda spewed forth by some stations. Have you ever tried to contact those distant stations for a QSL card (confirmation of reception)? Many of them have these postcard sized reports and will mail one to you provided you give them the date, time, brief description of the program aired and frequency.

 

[JimB]

The only issue with my loop is it is dead at both ends of the dial. It works great in the middle freqs., but dosn't have range for the top and bottom of the AM brodcast band. I remember reading somthing on how to adjust this, but I can't remember now.

It could be that the coil has too much inductance (too many turns) so with the tuning capacitor at minimum, it will not resonate up as high as 1600 khz,
and the capacitor is too small so that it will not resonate as low as 500 khz.

For a receiver I have a Hallicrafters S-38. http://www.arsmachina.com/halli38.htm

Looks good to me!

Certinly not as good as a modern transistor unit, but I got it for 3 bucks at an auction and have had many happy hours listening to it

Dont knock it, many of the newer "transistor" recievers were a big step back from the old valves in terms of strong signal handling and oscillator noise performance. Result, as anything but a local station reciever, they are crap!
This is one area where a reasonably well designed valve circuit beats transistors hands down.

JimB

 

[stevez]

Several friends used their GE Superradios with tuned loop antennas and got amazing results. I've borrowed the loop - about 24" square with maybe 20 turns of wire and a 365 pf variable. It uses a coupling loop to connect to the receiver. The performance is incredible, especially in an open room (outdoors is better). You'll find that you can hear many stations on a frequency as you rotate and tilt the loop.

This equipment can be great for DXing but is also great to have permanently mounted (with pre-amp) for day to day use. Quite often there can be daytime program material on a station that you might like but that might be out of range during the daytime. You'll likely have access to these stations thru the whole day.

Various ShortWave Listener's (SWL) groups have a lot of information to offer on this subject.