Shop Radio problems

[Donny Lawson]

Since I built my new shop I haven't been able to get but one station on the radio and its not what I like. I like the regular radio for a little music and news but during the evenings of the week it will only pick up the ballgame. Saturdays are not much better. I've wasted the entire day trying to figure out something but failed. I had an old antenna that used to be for the TV and set it up outside and run some wire to it from my radio antenna trying for better reception but failed. I thought maybe aluminum wire might work so I tried it but with no luck. I can carry my radio outside and it picks up fine. I can take the radio in the house and it picks up fine. I've tried 2 radios but still with no luck. Any suggestions that might help?:confused::(:confused::confused::confused:

[John Coloccia]

Since I built my new shop I haven't been able to get but one station on the radio and its not what I like. I like the regular radio for a little music and news but during the evenings of the week it will only pick up the ballgame. Saturdays are not much better. I've wasted the entire day trying to figure out something but failed. I had an old antenna that used to be for the TV and set it up outside and run some wire to it from my radio antenna trying for better reception but failed. I thought maybe aluminum wire might work so I tried it but with no luck. I can carry my radio outside and it picks up fine. I can take the radio in the house and it picks up fine. I've tried 2 radios but still with no luck. Any suggestions that might help?:confused::(:confused::confused::confused:

Do you have a cheap laptop? Stream your favorite radio station over the internet.

Have an iPhone, iPod or iPad? Install ooTunes and stream your favorite station like that. I can listen to WABC out of New York (my favorite station as I grew up there) all day. Right now, I'm streaming a flamenco/classical guitar channel...I don't even know what channel it is. I just searched for it.

Own another device? There's some way to stream channels, believe me.

You can search for such channels on the internet as well. Radio is for the birds and I've completely given up on it! I haven't owned a decent radio in 15 or 20 years....they are universally LOUSY these days. I have old radios in Yonkers that work fine. Nothing new I own works for peanuts.

[Jim O'Dell]

Something is obviously interfering with the reception. My shop radio is an old am/fm/cass out of a mid 80s Mazda RX-7. Has 2 separate amps for it, though I only have one hooked up at the moment. A powered antenna made for a boat or RV worked ok, but not real clear reception inside, and one fluorescent light fixture caused a buzz. I got an extension and mounted the same antenna on the north eave of the shop, and it is clear as a bell. All this to say try the radio with the lights off. If the reception clears up, you know what you need to do. Jim.

[Joe Pelonio]

Another thing that messes it up is a light on a dimmer that's not on the brightest setting. The motors in many power tools will do it too, but then you couldn't hear it anyway if those are running. Did it work in your old shop? What's different about it? Metal roof and/or siding will mess up AM.

[Don Jarvie]

Have you moved the radio around to different parts of the shop to see if the reception is better? What kind of radio is it, boom box, stereo receiver, etc. Boom box may be better because the radios are designed to pick up the radio signals where a receiver is designed to power a stereo system.

I have a cheap receiver that only gets limited stations but the sound is so much better than the boom box. I got a cheap DVD/CD player and listen to CDs now in the shop. I put the CD player in a cabinet to keep the dust down.

[John Coloccia]

The main problem are those horrible ferrite loop antennas that come with radios today. If you really want great reception, I suggest you build a simple loop antenna. Directions for such a thing are available online if you look. You don't even need to hook it up to anything...the antenna has it's own radiation pattern which will significantly boost the signal to your radio. All you need to do is "tune" the antenna, point it towards the source and put your radio near it. The cheapest radio on the planet with a decent antenna will probably be much better than what you currently have.

I'm assuming, by the way, that you're tuning AM stations? That usually gives the most trouble. The antenna in the radio is fairly directional...you need to twist the radio around to get good reception.

[Chuck Wintle]

Since I built my new shop I haven't been able to get but one station on the radio and its not what I like. I like the regular radio for a little music and news but during the evenings of the week it will only pick up the ballgame. Saturdays are not much better. I've wasted the entire day trying to figure out something but failed. I had an old antenna that used to be for the TV and set it up outside and run some wire to it from my radio antenna trying for better reception but failed. I thought maybe aluminum wire might work so I tried it but with no luck. I can carry my radio outside and it picks up fine. I can take the radio in the house and it picks up fine. I've tried 2 radios but still with no luck. Any suggestions that might help?:confused::(:confused::confused::confused:

is your new shop wood or metal construction? If metal with metal siding it is acting like a faraday chamber where electromagnetic signals are attenuated inside the chamber. try running an antenna right to the outisde.

[Damon Stathatos]

...The motors in many power tools will do it too...

Reminds me of the time I finally broke down and popped $50 for hearing protection with a built-in AM/FM radio and goofy antenna sticking up from one of the sides. I had been longing for this forbidden fruit, this new technological marvel, after hours-on-end sanding with my random orbital sander, imagining myself engrossed and surrounded by a great ball game, music, or the talking-heads radio programs. Rockler finally put it on sale which completely overtook my heretofore reservations so I scurried down and snatched it up, contently driving back home and imagining that I was about to embark on re-sanding my COMPLETE shop, all in shear bliss. Everything was great up to the point of me hitting the switch on the ROS, then, pure static. Switch off...great, on...pure static mixed with high pitched and vacillating wheezing.
Bummer for sure but all is not lost as this great contraption was also equipped with noise-canceling. So, ok, no music/ ball games / talking heads, but I can just keep it on 'noise canceling,' right? That's surely worth $50. Next problem...I used to incidentally bump that antenna into EVERYTHING which created a megaphone effect inside that particular ear 'muff'. It would startle the heck out of me every time I did it. Like someone sneaking up to you...boo !! No problem, I'll just learn to give my head more clearance in the future. But it's like you're already used to moving your head within a certain range of objects. As soon as you are forced to extend that range (antenna sticking outside the former range), forget it. Too many years of primal 'this is the head-range area' to be able to consciously break. I finally ended up cutting that basxxxd antenna off and have been relegated to using them as mere and ordinary (maybe $10) hearing protection, minus music, minus noise canceling.

Back on track and now to the OP. I 'live' in my shop which is basically a concrete bunker, void of decent AM reception. I finally tied a copper wire from my old beater radio's broken antenna and wrapped it around my nearby copper air pipe. The air pipe is laid-out as a network around the whole shop and seems to be acting as one big antenna. I'm not sure if conduit piping works the same but you may want to try that in lieu of my air pipe network.

[Donny Lawson]

My shop is a 24x30 wood building so thats not the problem. I do have floresent lights but I did turn off all the lights and it still didn't pickup any better. I've moved the radio all over too and it didn't seem to help. It's an older Sanyo AM/FM Cassette but it has always worked great. I can take it in the house or outside and it works fine. So its got something to do with the inside of the shop.

[Jerome Stanek]

Foil faced insulation

[ray hampton]

Dony, we use to have radio and television sets that had lousy reception until someone placed their hand on the antenna