Increasing Stationary Radio's Reception

[tpluss]

A stereo receives its FM radio reception from a small wire strewn out the back. How do I increase the reception?

Would I need a bigger wire, longer wire, or is there some other way to increase its reception?

The wire is removable; it clips into a metallic contact built into the stereo

 

[turbo]

If your radio has a signal-strength indicator, experiment with the orientation of the antenna to optimize the signal. You may find that moving the antenna nearer to or farther from some metallic object can affect the signal strength, too.

 

[berkeman]

A good FM antenna is a folded dipole -- kind of a T-looking thing with two symmetric wires at the bottom, like this:

http://www.electronics-radio.com/articles/radio/antennas/dipole/folded_dipole.gif

You can buy them at Radio Shack and most electronics and TV stores. Once you have a reasonable antenna like that, the best reception is to find a place that gets a pretty good signal, like a window or an external wall that does not have anything conducting in it (external stucco finishes often have chicken wire in them for strength). Usually if you just tack the folded dipole antenna on one of your walls above the stereo, it will pick up signals pretty well.

Alternately, you can have an external dipole antenna mounted on your external TV antenna (if you have one), and run balanced stripline cable down into your house/condo along with the TV cable.

 

[minorwork]

Have a good ground for the receiver.