Entertainment Center: TVs, Stereos, VCRs and DVDs - Receiver antenna

Is there any way to boost the reception of a regular (out of the box) antenna? I've read about crystal sets, which use a terribly long wire connected to a tree from out of the window, with it grounded to the cold water pipe. I assume that is for AM since nowhere it mentions (at least what i was reading) picking up FM stations (which is what i'm trying to get). It would be nice to not put up one of those big antiquated metal grids ontop of the roof.

Well there are amplifiers that can be installed that you can get from Radio Shack for around $50. Your profile does not say where you are (which should be mandatory) so are you in the middle of gods country or the city, in an apartment etc. long wires are primarily for AM but other antennas can be made out of 300 ohm twin lead for a specific frequency. If you have an attic you can put an antenna there and avoid it being seen or in case you are ruled by a home owners association. It also depends are if your using a $9.95 clock radio and a decent stereo receiver setup. Throw a little more information at me and we’ll go from here… There are lots of things to do but it rest’s on your equipment and space available for antennas etc…

Excellent, mike. Well, first off it's a pioneer receiver...not sure of the model #, i'll get that one for ya. Next, I live in Winston-Salem, NC, near the Colessium (a little landmark), I'll give ya directions if it'll provide a solution. The station I'm tryin' to pick up is in Greensboro (90.9MHz FM), around 30 miles away & the house i'm in is an antique that is built with real rock hard (impossible to drive a screw in & will crack if you bang a nail in it) sheet-rock drywall.

I picked up a book on antenna's, which mostly talks about ham stuff (a little overkill for my application), but it is very educational. It also talks about the cold-water-pipe method in series with fence poles (which I also have) for a good ground. Then goes on about a huge tree (for a good conductor). Not sure, if these will be useful for the frequency, i'm shootin' for. This is the watered-down, cheapest solution I extracted from the readings of course.

The signal is strong enough that it would be crystal clear, with a little minor tweaking (the reason for this post, of course). I haven't the faintest clue about constructing rf circuits, however, I'm a die-hard (U don't wanna know) doityourselfer. If there some pre-amp circuit, that can be connected to the antenna, then that's what I'm here for. I can bias a transistor, & any geek can connect an IC to discreet components, but if your talking about multi-stage tank resonant blah, blah, then i'll have to admit, another reason that i'm here is b/c, while educational, all that ham stuff is a little obsessive.

Any clues will go a long way though.

I would say this would do the trick for you From Radio Shack Cat. No. 15-1843 for $10. Or this one for $20 15-1828. Or you could go outside but 30 miles is nothing if it’s a good station. The walls do hurt but a good indoor amplified antenna should do you just fine. If you want to build something that antenna book you have will tell you what to do. You can build just about anything. I have built many antennas since childhood. You can build a ¼-wave dipole out of 300-ohm twin lead cut specifically for the stations frequency. I’m sure you’ve seen the “T” type 300-ohm antennas that come with almost all stereos today. Make one of those about 6 feet long and stick it on the wall closest to the stations tower. Most station link from the station to the transmitter in the country so you will need to find out where the transmitter site is. You really don’t stick a 100 thousand watt antenna up in the middle of town. 500 to 1000 maybe.
http://www.qsl.net/kd4sai/antencal.html is a ham guy that has a calculator running. Type in the frequency and hit calculate and it spits out how long the antenna is (without feed line, feed line in not part of the calculation here unless you are going hundreds of feet.).

Well, first off please forgive me for ignorance, however, again most of the stuff i've found including the ARRL stuff has not been for any type of beginner, at least human beginner. I can only try to guess at what a lot of the terms mean & guess is the best thing i can do, given the information.

Yes, i'd like to build one, buying any contraption may be a simple prolonging of my rf ignorance. So, if you don't mind, a couple of questions are in order. I would like to use something from within the house & if you say the walls don't matter then this seems doable. Now -> 300 ohm's is this a resistor in series with my wire or is it the wire itself? If not, will any wire (what gauge? ) do? I have one of those T-shaped antenna's on the wall now, but it's not facing east (the station's direction). When I try to move it that way, it's no help. But it does help clear fuzz, when i'm holding it (guess the human body is a good ground). Also, the calculator says 5-feet for a 1/2 wavelength, & 2 1/2-feet for 1/4 wavelength (whatever those mean). Since you suggested 1/4 wavelenght, i'm guessin' that's what i need. So, 2 1/2 ft plus feed-line (i'm assuming that means from the end of 2 1/2 ft to the receiver itself). Oh I'll try to find where exactly the transmitter is.

300 ohm twin lead is just that, it’s resistance is 300 ohms. No resistors or anything needed. Well if you already have one of the dipole antennas on the wall now then the station is to far away for that antenna to do much better. I wonder, do you have any plaster walls? If so you are in an RF death trap! The wire mesh used to support the plaster acts as a trap and RF plays hell getting out of the house. My walls here are plaster with the siding and the aluminum shielded insulation under the siding I do good to get a signal in or out of here! Do you have an outside antenna for your TV? I guess building a dipole out of copper rod would be the best. Go to a welding supply shop, I use a hard drawn copper rod, or a hard drawn copper welding rod. One element up, one element down with 75 Ohm coax soldered to the elements. Center wire to top, shield to bottom. Rods are about 25 inches long and are perfect for FM, you won’t really even need to trim it. If you were going to transmit then we would cut and trim for proper SWR. (Standing Wave Ratio). Mount this inside like ½ PVC with a “T” in the middle and an insulator like a piece of plastic and run the coax to the stereo terminated at an “F” type connector into a matching balun. Not hard to do and if you will PM me with an email I can send about a meg file to I will use my CAD program to layout what it will look like, parts etc. We build these little ¼ wave 2 meter and 75 centimeter antennas using this hard copper welding rod an SO239 bulkhead mounted connector. Like on the back of a CB, that’s an SO239 the end on the coax is a PL259. But from your last post you need to go outside.

Yeah, Mike, that was my first thought when he said "rock hard (impossible to drive a screw in & will crack if you bang a nail in it) sheet-rock drywall" - Plaster. If it's an old house, 50+ years, it's probably plaster. Like Mike says, you need to go outside with it. I use the Radio Shack type AM/FM amplifiers on my receivers, but I'm in an apartment with sheet rock and the station is only 12 miles away or so, no to mention you can pick them up pretty much all over N. GA so I know they have a strong signal.

Good luck!