BC in a "noisy" building
 

I sit in a metal-clad cubicle grid - located and on the opposite side of an ancient masonry building from a few decent AM stations. Every radio I tried had a built in loop antenna : a 1949 Zenith AA6, GE Superadio, Nordemende Turandot all barely picked up anything I could stand for more than a few minutes.

Adding long wire antennas about 20 feet in several directions did not help much at all. Moving sets and antennas just enhanced lots of noise spots between the 3-4 strong local AM fare, all talk-stations:sigh:

FM does not favor much either, with electronic-fluorescent lighting and other harmonic-spewing switch-mode power-supplied PC, monitors, wallwarts, etc. Only a remote-located antenna at a window, in an attic or on a roof could bring in what is all over the dial outside, in my vehicle.

As a last resort, I brought my full-recapped and aligned but super-simple 1937 Zenith tombstone 5R135 as the daily-driver, with no RF amp stage OR loop antenna, just the 6A8 osc-mixer tube. Guess what? It pulls in E*V*E*R*Y*T*H*I*N*G :music:with just 10 feet of #24 telecom wire UNDER the carpet.

The radio sits only 1 foot from a laptop but ditching the local loop made all the difference! Clear stations and a few beat-freqs, not noise bursts, as the dial is run end to end. I have a choice of classic or new country, 60s-70s pop and old-time gospel along with every other talker within 50 miles!!! While I remember from Tech-Telecom college that the BC band travels as a ground wave, but I cannot rationalize this.

The point of this thread is: I don't know how many of us figured this out but I only did a month or two ago. And if you are fortunate enough to have some BC stations - actually locally-staffed and playing music, you need to give your older, pre-1940 radio a chance in a forget-about-it location. Maybe its time to see what I get on HF using a more complex pre-war set:scratch2:

I agree, I have a 1932 vintage U.S. Gloritone Cathedral Radio Model 99A that with just a short length of wire wired to it it picks up all kinds of stations, its just a simple 5 tube unit but quite effective none the less, my Cathedral Radio was completely recapped by the previous owner but the previous owner wasn't being careful with the unit and put his hand through the speaker and grill cloth and so I had to repair the original Utah speaker inside the unit and I have to refinish the cabinet and then get some new grill cloth installed on the thing.

I'm lucky, I guess. As a software engineer who programs remote crane(mostly) control systems I've got a BIG desk (essentially 2 at right angles) to lay all the gear I have to test my work with out on. Keeping my Zenith C835H ~3'-4' away from my laptop results in clean reception (except when I set up a remote next to it) on Am and FM with the loop...I've got metal cubes around me too, but am against a cinder block wall on the side most of the good locals come from so there is not much it need filter through....
I don't run it much though since I don't want to bug my cow-orkers. :D

Interesting how a simple set shines in a difficult location like that.

And here I thought I was the only person in the world that called them cow orkers! Gotta let them go ork them cows :D

This is what I've been listening to the news on each morning...a 1925 Resas Tone-A-Dyne I picked up on ebay. Built a power supply to match the battery voltages and it plays.....well, it plays like a 1920s tinny squawk box :stupid:

It is cool to use, but listening fatigue sets in after 15 minutes or so....bout long enough for the news.

Now there is a radio that needs an operator with a license, TRF all the way:thmbsp:

I forget where I picked that up, but I do hear it here occasionally....Here in the dairy state if someone ain't orking the cows they start to get lonely.:D

Cow Orkers must be sumpthin' akin to Superb Owls.

Sounds like my first old lady.:yuck: