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AM/FM/radio

Graydog

Biblical Innards
So I think need a radio with great reception as I live in an area that doesn't always seem to let me listen to smaller stations and even some of the most powerful in My area.
(I have to go outside to use my cell phone at times)
Anyway just thought I'd put this on here and see if anyone has any suggestions.
Could be portable or table top
Emergency would be good too.
 
Unfortunately, there has not been a lot of effort made to improve AM/FM radios for home use in the past few decades. The best radios are the ones made for use in vehicles. They have both good sensitivity (pick up weak stations) and selectivity (block strong stations from interfering). I bet if you get into your car you will be able to listen to stations you cannot hear with your home or portable radio.

Some of the better radios for home use are made by Sangean. They have a wide variety of models. Like you, I live in a fringe area. I purchased a Sangean KDT-20 HD Radio/FM Stereo/ AM Component Tuner. It is a great radio, but it does not have a built in amplifier. You have to use with with headphones or hook up an amplifier or external speakers. It may be more expensive than you want, but I wanted the HD radio capability as there are HD stations in my area. I have mine hooked up to a AV receiver and some decent quality speakers.

A radio is no better than its antenna. Most AM radios come with a ferrite wound antenna. If that is not sufficient, you can always add an outdoor long wire antenna. Anything 50 feet or longer will work, but the longer the better.

The radio is most likely to come with an FM antenna made of twin-lead antenna wire. You can also purchase antennas designed for FM and VHF TV use like the old rabbit ears. If you can rotate the antenna to point towards the broadcast antenna, that gives the best reception.
 
I had a Sangean radio for the kitchen many years ago. The sound quality is amazing especially with spoken voice. Of course music sounded amazing too.

it was the PR-D5. Not sure if it was more sensitive or not but consider an outside antenna/ external radio antenna. My father put one up when I was a kid (I am not a kid anymore!) it's been there a good 30 years and does it's job. you can catch signals from all over. It's not big either, just sits attached to the side of the house and the wire comes in to where he listens to the radio.

Now he's moved on to digital radio using a Tivoli Model One Digital.
 

Columbo

Mr. Codgers Neighborhood
The GE Superradio series used to be the affordable standard for long range portable AM/FM reception, but now we are going back a few decades. Still used discrete tuning circuits and a well-designed ferrite rod that had legs. Could easily DX cross country on one of those, and they ran forever on 6 D cells.

Some of the really old Zenith portables also had excellent DX ability, but most of them are gone, and the ones that are left will need an overhaul to regain performance.

I have some of the more modern shortwave receivers, but they are no great shakes on commercial AM/FM bands.

A really good FM tuner, tube or solid state, costs a fortune these days. I’ve got a few of those in vintage trim, but they all sit around collecting dust. What’s on the FM band these days is an insult to good equipment. Still plenty of talk and information on AM, though.

All the newer consumer stuff has “tuner on a chip” design for commercial AM/FM now, and most of them stink.

Your best bet for good AM is one of the older portables from the 1950s through the 80’s, or a converted car stereo unit, as some of those still have decent AM sections. This is from the era when AM was still a primary media source. Even an old “American Five” table radio might provide a decent option.

If you want terrific AM sound quality, look for old AM-FM stereo receivers. The AM sections on those were elaborately over-designed to provide a very high fidelity output, as it had to compete with FM sound on the other channel. All of those will likely be tubed models from the pre-MPX era of the very early 1960s.

No matter the receiver, especially with FM, the antenna means far more. A poor array will frustrate even the most sensitive front end.

Don’t forget to factor selectivity in your decision if there are nearby powerhouse signals that overwhelm what you want to tune in. It doesn’t matter how sensitive the front end is if the selectivity is too wide.

I do find myself streaming the online feed for more marginal signals more often these days. It’s just easier, and on a marginal OTA signal, the stream sound quality is often better. I tie it into our house intercom system and it plays through the whole house.
 

Graydog

Biblical Innards
The GE Superradio series used to be the affordable standard for long range portable AM/FM reception, but now we are going back a few decades. Still used discrete tuning circuits and a well-designed ferrite rod that had legs. Could easily DX cross country on one of those, and they ran forever on 6 D cells.

Some of the really old Zenith portables also had excellent DX ability, but most of them are gone, and the ones that are left will need an overhaul to regain performance.

I have some of the more modern shortwave receivers, but they are no great shakes on commercial AM/FM bands.

A really good FM tuner, tube or solid state, costs a fortune these days. I’ve got a few of those in vintage trim, but they all sit around collecting dust. What’s on the FM band these days is an insult to good equipment. Still plenty of talk and information on AM, though.

All the newer consumer stuff has “tuner on a chip” design for commercial AM/FM now, and most of them stink.

Your best bet for good AM is one of the older portables from the 1950s through the 80’s, or a converted car stereo unit, as some of those still have decent AM sections. This is from the era when AM was still a primary media source. Even an old “American Five” table radio might provide a decent option.

If you want terrific AM sound quality, look for old AM-FM stereo receivers. The AM sections on those were elaborately over-designed to provide a very high fidelity output, as it had to compete with FM sound on the other channel. All of those will likely be tubed models from the pre-MPX era of the very early 1960s.

No matter the receiver, especially with FM, the antenna means far more. A poor array will frustrate even the most sensitive front end.

Don’t forget to factor selectivity in your decision if there are nearby powerhouse signals that overwhelm what you want to tune in. It doesn’t matter how sensitive the front end is if the selectivity is too wide.

I do find myself streaming the online feed for more marginal signals more often these days. It’s just easier, and on a marginal OTA signal, the stream sound quality is often better. I tie it into our house intercom system and it plays through the whole house.

I didn't think about a vintage stereo receiver, l have one that I purchased back in the 70s that is sitting on a shelf.
I will have to try it out when I get home. It's not very portable though.
 

Columbo

Mr. Codgers Neighborhood
I don't think you need a radio as much as you need a good FM and a good AM antennae.

By the way - did you hear that the FM and the AM antennae got married?
The wedding was terrible, but the reception was great.
And just as she said on their wedding night, size matters.

If in an RF ‘pit’, there is only one solution, and it’s upward.
 

Columbo

Mr. Codgers Neighborhood
I didn't think about a vintage stereo receiver, l have one that I purchased back in the 70s that is sitting on a shelf.
I will have to try it out when I get home. It's not very portable though.
Vintage equipment, if still in good working order, is probably still your best indoor bet, especially for AM. They were from a time when AM still mattered in most homes, and the engineers invested time and good quality parts in them.

The problem will be “good working order”. Once the equipment gets 30-35 years out, you can start suffering from capacitor fade and drift, which will significantly degrade performance (and in extreme instances can short out a power supply section). Electrolytic capacitors are what normally tank electronic instruments past a certain age. The only solution if active components haven’t been damaged is a re-cap job.

Recapping equipment is not for the usual DIY, but is more of an electronic hobbyist or vintage tech job. And that is just the start of it. On the older equipment, especially on the tubed ones, there is also the chance it might need a realignment. And that is virtually a lost art nowadays. I don’t even do those anymore, as they require signal generators and scopes, and a lot of bench experience. Most techs are completely unable to do alignments today; I know of one really old guy on the west coast that does mine, and that’s it.

That is why the recommendation of an old Zenith was with a caveat, and I didn’t recommend some of the fantastic German table radios from the golden era, such as vintage Grundigs or Blaupunkts. They sound superb, and some can really DX on a minimum of tubes (smart Germans), but they almost always require an extensive rebuild at this point to work as designed. The older American table radios probably won’t be much better. Wonderful higher end gear from Collins, etc., all suffer the same problem. No matter how magnificent their design performance, ancient paper and beeswax caps are their downfall. I have lots of replacement tubes on hand, but if it’s still out of alignment after the rebuild …

So if your 70s receiver disappoints you, don’t necessarily blame it, as it may be electronically hobbled by this point. I keep a restored Marantz 2230 in my garage for nice sounds. It’s only overhauled through the power supply and audio sections. Sounds great, but the tuner can’t pull for beans anymore, even coaxed to a roof array.

I think the GE Superradio series was sold well into the late 1980s. That is what I would chase if looking for something cheap to plant on the kitchen table. They are AC/DC, so you won’t be buying batts if you don’t want to. I still have a SRII, and even 30+ years out, it still pulls very well and sounds very good. Better than most all the digital ones made more recently.

But all the other posts talking about antennae are spot on. If you are in a poor reception area, it’s all about a better outdoor antenna array. Do that first. Dollar for dollar, that is where you want to spend your DX budget. I’d rather have a first-class array feeding a mediocre receiver than the opposite arrangement. Receivers can only amplify what the antenna can first capture. There are no miracle circuits that can create a signal that isn’t on the down feed.

Good luck on your quest for good DX.
 
Several decades ago it was quite common to receive AM stations at night that were hundreds of miles away. That is why some stations were only authorized to broadcast during the day.

AM broadcast radio operate between 535 - 1705 KHz. That is in what is known as the Medium Frequency band or MF. The wavelength is somewhere between 175 - 560 meters. That is why long wire antennas work so well with AM broadcast stations.
 
A contrary suggestion is to bypass AM/FM radio transmission and look to create a "radio" setup that relies on your internet connection, assuming you have adequate data on your mobile device or a decent home connection. Nearly all radio stations simulcast over the internet. One of my local stations (thatstation.net) has a low power signal (95.7 FM) and actively suggests that radio listeners try their App for better clarity. There are so many radio stations online and other streaming sources accessible through dedicated apps or a web browser that a person is doing themselves a disservice to only listen to local broadcasts IMO. So much music, talk, and podcasts are available over the internet. Of course one should have some terrestrial radio backup reception in case of an internet outage or emergency.
 

FarmerTan

"Self appointed king of Arkoland"
A contrary suggestion is to bypass AM/FM radio transmission and look to create a "radio" setup that relies on your internet connection, assuming you have adequate data on your mobile device or a decent home connection. Nearly all radio stations simulcast over the internet. One of my local stations (thatstation.net) has a low power signal (95.7 FM) and actively suggests that radio listeners try their App for better clarity. There are so many radio stations online and other streaming sources accessible through dedicated apps or a web browser that a person is doing themselves a disservice to only listen to local broadcasts IMO. So much music, talk, and podcasts are available over the internet. Of course one should have some terrestrial radio backup reception in case of an internet outage or emergency.
Yep. I love to listen to the late great Art Bell's Coast to Coast AM every night on my "radio" app.
 

Columbo

Mr. Codgers Neighborhood
Internet is a good way to listen but I want to try and get away from my phone.
I guess what I am looking for has more to do with being able to leave the web behind and connect the old fashion way.
I understand. I feel the same way. I'm very old school, too. On a battery powered portable radio, it's wireless all the way from the antenna farm to your house. Not as much to go wrong, and Comcast, Verizon or AT&T can't stop it. I used to love DXing very late at night when everyone's asleep. Overnight AM radio programming is a different world.

But new tricks can sometimes make an old dog's life better.

Internet and a home network does offer some advantages when the power's on and everything is working. On a long distance AM station, the online stream will almost always sound better than the RF signal. And commercial FM broadcast quality has degraded to the point where the OTA is almost never better than the online stream. Media and signal compression has killed the old High-Fidelity FM format we remembered. I only fire up my old FM tuners a couple times a year now, merely to keep the capacitors well-formed.

If you have home internet service, or even just a basic home network and some storage capacity (no Internet), another option is to acquire an Internet/network streaming front end or radio. Some have a self contained amp and speaker, connect via Wi-Fi, and behave just like an old RF radio, rotary knob and all.

No mobile phones, iDevices, or wireless plans to deal with.

I'm still a big fan of the long-discontinued Squeezebox series. We have one connected to our 1960s era home intercom system. I still use my phone, but just as a remote control to change the music source. I can listen to any online radio station in the world through it. It has a traditional AM/FM tuner, too, but OTA AM becomes a train wreck whenever Mrs. Columbo turns on a mixer. The network stream is always clean.

And those kind of network devices open up some interesting local media possibilities, too.

Someone many years ago digitized hundreds of hours of reel-to-reel recordings they made in the 1960s of OTA FM easy listening station broadcasts (such as WRFM out of NYC), station breaks, commercials and all, and made it freely available on the Internet to enjoy. Exceptional quality recordings of old-style, high-fidelity FM broadcasts. We downloaded it all to our local library, and now occasionally play it through that intercom via a Squeezebox. Now THAT is a time machine. Visitors listen, literally hear the 1960s playing through a 1960's intercom system, stare at that ancient Nutone dial, and their jaws drop.

And it's completely self-contained; I don't need the outside world to enjoy it whenever I like, along with over 70,000 other audio tracks in our home library: thousands of OTR programs, vast CD libraries, modern 24-bit Hi-Def music. All on a local storage drive. It all plays through that old Nutone intercom. Every 5 years or so, the pilot lamp burns out on it, and I drop a fresh GE 1819 bulb into it.

You just can't do that with an AM/FM portable.

Tack one to your old 70s receiver and a good set of speakers, and you have it all in a quality stereo setup.

We also have one of their "Radios", which is AC/DC, completely portable, and connects via Wi-Fi over our Router mesh. It can play everything that Nutone can, even out on the patio.
 
I understand. I feel the same way. I'm very old school, too. On a battery powered portable radio, it's wireless all the way from the antenna farm to your house. Not as much to go wrong, and Comcast, Verizon or AT&T can't stop it. I used to love DXing very late at night when everyone's asleep. Overnight AM radio programming is a different world.

But new tricks can sometimes make an old dog's life better.

Internet and a home network does offer some advantages when the power's on and everything is working. On a long distance AM station, the online stream will almost always sound better than the RF signal. And commercial FM broadcast quality has degraded to the point where the OTA is almost never better than the online stream. Media and signal compression has killed the old High-Fidelity FM format we remembered. I only fire up my old FM tuners a couple times a year now, merely to keep the capacitors well-formed.

If you have home internet service, or even just a basic home network and some storage capacity (no Internet), another option is to acquire an Internet/network streaming front end or radio. Some have a self contained amp and speaker, connect via Wi-Fi, and behave just like an old RF radio, rotary knob and all.

No mobile phones, iDevices, or wireless plans to deal with.

I'm still a big fan of the long-discontinued Squeezebox series. We have one connected to our 1960s era home intercom system. I still use my phone, but just as a remote control to change the music source. I can listen to any online radio station in the world through it. It has a traditional AM/FM tuner, too, but OTA AM becomes a train wreck whenever Mrs. Columbo turns on a mixer. The network stream is always clean.

And those kind of network devices open up some interesting local media possibilities, too.

Someone many years ago digitized hundreds of hours of reel-to-reel recordings they made in the 1960s of OTA FM easy listening station broadcasts (such as WRFM out of NYC), station breaks, commercials and all, and made it freely available on the Internet to enjoy. Exceptional quality recordings of old-style, high-fidelity FM broadcasts. We downloaded it all to our local library, and now occasionally play it through that intercom via a Squeezebox. Now THAT is a time machine. Visitors listen, literally hear the 1960s playing through a 1960's intercom system, stare at that ancient Nutone dial, and their jaws drop.

And it's completely self-contained; I don't need the outside world to enjoy it whenever I like, along with over 70,000 other audio tracks in our home library: thousands of OTR programs, vast CD libraries, modern 24-bit Hi-Def music. All on a local storage drive. It all plays through that old Nutone intercom. Every 5 years or so, the pilot lamp burns out on it, and I drop a fresh GE 1819 bulb into it.

You just can't do that with an AM/FM portable.

Tack one to your old 70s receiver and a good set of speakers, and you have it all in a quality stereo setup.

We also have one of their "Radios", which is AC/DC, completely portable, and connects via Wi-Fi over our Router mesh. It can play everything that Nutone can, even out on the patio.
A am a big fan of Squeezebox as well. A nicely packaged unit with the display and ability to connect into one's existing hi-fi setup. I am still disappointed that they were bought by Logitech and then discontinued some years later. That made no sense to me, even if the product was never upgraded it would still have utility IMO. Seems that Logitech gave the market over to Sonos, though I have not kept up with Sonos's offerings lately.

My squeezebox started acting up a few years ago, cutting out after a few seconds of playing. I let it sit and plugged it in last month and installed the lastest Slim Server on my PC to try streaming from my PC as well as the cloud but still have the issue. It seems like a network issue, but I have not done a deep search of the internet or old forums to discover it it is easily corrected or not. But regardless it is/was a great device.
 

Columbo

Mr. Codgers Neighborhood
A am a big fan of Squeezebox as well. A nicely packaged unit with the display and ability to connect into one's existing hi-fi setup. I am still disappointed that they were bought by Logitech and then discontinued some years later. That made no sense to me, even if the product was never upgraded it would still have utility IMO. Seems that Logitech gave the market over to Sonos, though I have not kept up with Sonos's offerings lately.

My squeezebox started acting up a few years ago, cutting out after a few seconds of playing. I let it sit and plugged it in last month and installed the lastest Slim Server on my PC to try streaming from my PC as well as the cloud but still have the issue. It seems like a network issue, but I have not done a deep search of the internet or old forums to discover it it is easily corrected or not. But regardless it is/was a great device.
Try a fresh power supply. You would be surprised how many problems are caused by one that is fading or failing. The wallwart ones are good for about 15 years max.

Any generic one matching specs will do. But the later ones for the Touch solved a lot of performance issues on the SB3s, too.

There is a wealth of information on keeping these going over on the Slimdevices Forum, which is still maintained.

 
I am in to shortwave radio more than FM, a humble portable Tecsun 330 does a great job for me. I indulge more in Software Defined Radios from RTL and Airspy HF+ when I get the time.

QRN is unbelievable these days of high tech gadgetry and lightning technologies existing today.
 
I am in to shortwave radio more than FM, a humble portable Tecsun 330 does a great job for me. I indulge more in Software Defined Radios from RTL and Airspy HF+ when I get the time.

QRN is unbelievable these days of high tech gadgetry and lightning technologies existing today.
I presume you are an amateur radio operator or at least an amateur radio short-wave listener. I suspect most of the folks here have no idea what a Software Defined Radio is. Nor will they be familiar with the Q-codes such as QRN-atmospheric noise and ZRM-manmade noise. Normally, I think of noise from lightning as QRN and noise from LED light bulbs and the like as QRM, but I guess that is a matter of interpretation.

I am an amateur radio operator with an Amateur Extra license in the USA. I have a modest transmitting station.

I understand Tecsun radios are good, but Sangean radios might be slightly better according to my research. Both companies offer a wide range of models, so there should be something that meets your needs.
 
I presume you are an amateur radio operator or at least an amateur radio short-wave listener. I suspect most of the folks here have no idea what a Software Defined Radio is. Nor will they be familiar with the Q-codes such as QRN-atmospheric noise and ZRM-manmade noise. Normally, I think of noise from lightning as QRN and noise from LED light bulbs and the like as QRM, but I guess that is a matter of interpretation.

I am an amateur radio operator with an Amateur Extra license in the USA. I have a modest transmitting station.

I understand Tecsun radios are good, but Sangean radios might be slightly better according to my research. Both companies offer a wide range of models, so there should be something that meets your needs.

That is why I have a Tecsun and depend more on SDRs. Two decades ago when a physical radio was king, I had a Grundig. Life was simple and only half as digital as it is today.
 

Columbo

Mr. Codgers Neighborhood
I presume you are an amateur radio operator or at least an amateur radio short-wave listener. I suspect most of the folks here have no idea what a Software Defined Radio is. Nor will they be familiar with the Q-codes such as QRN-atmospheric noise and ZRM-manmade noise. Normally, I think of noise from lightning as QRN and noise from LED light bulbs and the like as QRM, but I guess that is a matter of interpretation.

I am an amateur radio operator with an Amateur Extra license in the USA. I have a modest transmitting station.

I understand Tecsun radios are good, but Sangean radios might be slightly better according to my research. Both companies offer a wide range of models, so there should be something that meets your needs.

The difference between SDR and traditional discrete hardware is the difference between a bag of potato chips and a can of Pringles.

It depends on what's important to you as the operator.
 
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