I need to find out about radio antennas

[KIT.S]

Greetings,
My mom is blind and listens to free books through the Commission on the Blind. She would also like to listen to a particular radio station that broadcasts from only about 20 miles away, but our house is in a hollow and reception is very poor. My daughter takes her car down to the barn and can get reception for her station there, but mom doesn't have that option.

Can someone tell me if in-house plug-in radios can benefit from antennas? If so, what kind should I look for? Does it have to be wired, or should I expect an improvement with just the outside antenna and no wires hooked to the radio? Do I have to put the antenna in a "receptive" area, or will it work just attached to the roof of the house? We have a metal roof, and the incoming electrical line is attached to a 10 foot metal pipe at mom's end of the building.

And, finally, is there some type of person I could contact locally who knows or can figure out what we need?

I certainly appreciate your help. I believe there is someone on HT who knows the answer to nearly every question ever posed, so if I hit that person, I'll find out everything I need to!
Thanks,
Kit

[PNP Katahdins]

Kit, contact the radio station itself and see if they have any suggestions. I used to work for a non-commercial station and we would routinely get calls about similar situations. The engineers were as helpful as they could be to everyone. That was before internet radio, which has helped a lot of people but obviously not everyone.

Good luck to you and your mother.

Peg

[fordy]

...............A quality AM\FM radio should pick up a signal from 20 miles a way ! FM stations will have shorter broadcast radius's whereby the signal becomes weaker and will not present a strong enough signal for quality reception , but 20 miles should still be within range . AM stations signal strength reach out much farther than FM signals . , fordy

[blooba]

If you purchase a receiver/amplifier stereo they have replaceable antennas. Purchase a better antenna than the one that comes with it. I suspect the metal roof/construction of the house and or poor quality antennas are whats causing your problem. Not sure if you would even need an outdoor one or not but just buy it from a place that will return it if it isnt strong enough.

TV antenna guys will also deal with am/fm antenna's but I doubt it's that complex to need professional help.

[Jolly]

http://www.ccrane.com/antennas/

[geo in mi]

Originally Posted by Jolly

http://www.ccrane.com/antennas/

The FM Reflect Dipole Antenna shown should your best option unless you want to mess around with DIY. This antenna should be enough to collect enough signal down in a hollow 20 miles from the station. The only other option would be an outside antenna up as high as possibe that is custom tuned to receive your station's FM frequency.....

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-an-FM-Antenna

Hope this helps.

geo

[Alice In TX/MO]

Streaming radio over the Internet is awesome! Living remotely and behind a hill impacts us tremendously in Missouri.

[KIT.S]

Wow, thanks. I see I should have said her target station is an AM Christian station so the problems with FM being weaker shouldn't apply. I don't know why we don't get signal as we're up higher on the foothills, even if we're in our own personal hollow. There are big power lines on dual towers 1/4 mile away, between us and the station. I avoid doing anything with electricity except turning on the light switch, so really have no idea what I'm talking about.
The radio she has also has a cassette player in it and as far as I can find, that isn't available any more, but she still has cassettes she enjoys listening to. Maybe the age of her machinery is also a factor.
50 years ago she was the state computer expert/analyst for Alaska, but now can't see to use the internet or TV, so we're trying to keep the older machines going that she's used to.
Thanks for the suggestions, and I'll follow up with the station and have my son help me look at the antennas.
I knew I'd get answers here! Thanks again.
Kit

[Rectifier]

The ARRL radio handbook can be found at most libraries and has more information than you'll need or want.
I would recommend trying to find a local ham radio guy to help build or buy an antenna. Most hams are happy to help. FYI most antennas sold to the public are, if not an outright scam, a rip off.

[arabian knight]

Originally Posted by KIT.S

Wow, thanks. I see I should have said her target station is an AM Christian station so the problems with FM being weaker shouldn't apply. I don't know why we don't get signal as we're up higher on the foothills, even if we're in our own personal hollow. There are big power lines on dual towers 1/4 mile away, between us and the station. I avoid doing anything with electricity except turning on the light switch, so really have no idea what I'm talking about.
The radio she has also has a cassette player in it and as far as I can find, that isn't available any more, but she still has cassettes she enjoys listening to. Maybe the age of her machinery is also a factor.
50 years ago she was the state computer expert/analyst for Alaska, but now can't see to use the internet or TV, so we're trying to keep the older machines going that she's used to.
Thanks for the suggestions, and I'll follow up with the station and have my son help me look at the antennas.
I knew I'd get answers here! Thanks again.
Kit

Now that you mentioned it is a AM station then This is what I would go after.
It is great and has its own fine tuner I have it and it really works good even on far away AM stations.
It works good, but it is not cheap.

[Nimrod]

I would try a long wire antenna first. Take a piece of wire that is as long as you have room for and put an alligator clip or an adapter on the radio end. Connect the wire to the radio by plugging the adapter in if the radio has an external antenna input or clip the alligator clip to the rod antenna if it doesn't. Run the wire outside and as high up as you can get it if you can. If you can't get it outside then run it around inside the house.

I know there is at least one person who will say that the rod antenna is for FM but clipping the wire on there will help with AM reception too.

This is the cheapest and simpilist solution so try it first.

This is for shortwave which is broadcast in AM. it helps reception of commericial AM stations too.

http://www.hamuniverse.com/shortwaveantenna.html

[idahodave]

It's hard to beat a Terk AM Advantage for improving AM reception. I think C Crane sells them.

[badlander]

Thumbs up on the simple long wire antenna. DH put one on our receiver and it boosted our signal considerably. Our reception sux also, for both AM, FM radio and television. Our 'wire' runs up and around a doorway close to an exterior wall and with it we can pick up an AM station 60 miles away,

We aren't in a valley, just out in the middle of nowhere.

[Jim-mi]

For AM all you need is a long wire ant. Perhaps a local friend can help install. Run the wire carefully thru a window. Make sure the wire is insulated so that running it through trees does not ground it.
Yes CCrane has some very nice receivers ..but their stuff is very spendy . . .
But a long wire would be far cheaper.
Give some serious thought to getting her a newer receiver.....