Quote:
Originally Posted by Boobtubeman
Hehehe yeah i wasnt expecting to hear "calling all cars" 
My roof antenna was a throw together.. It consists of a stainless steel whip bolted to a copper vent pipe (ex CB) and some RG26 A/U i had lying around as sheilded cable. Im sure its not matched but my dads ZENITH trans oceanic seemed to enjoy it 
Mind ya, i just did a re-cap on it and dont have the tools or the knowlege to give it a tune-up if it needs one..
I just thought ide get some kind of reception even with a throw- together roof setup.. Trying to figure out if the rado is okay or i need to upgrade the antenna.. ?
Steve |
A recap is usually indicated before any alignment procedure is taken, so it is possible you won't need to touch the alignment at all. All too often an "alignment-happy" tech will diddle the coils when the cause of alignment drift is aging capacitors.
Other than that one of the chief enemies of AM reception is the flourescent light. Most of us energy-conscious citizens have strayed away from Edison's lamp to the flourescent sub-ins, and these--along with their conventional tubular counterparts--wreak havoc on the AM bands, especially the lower frequencies.
Your lower shortwave band should have decent activity from 3MHz up, with less activity below that. Unfortunately most of it is in the form of SSB transmissions as a rule. You can sidle a normal AM broadcast radio next to this one and diddle with the dial to get its local oscillator to supply the needed carrier if you care to listen to the slopbucketers.