Can my amplifier remote wire connect to power antenna wire?

Any way to connect a "normal FM antenna" to a clock radio antenna (piece of dangling wire)?

• Hi everyone, Is there any way to connect an FM antenna (of any type, dipole "T", terk amplified, etc) to a clock radio's antenna (a piece of wire)? For example, if ...show more

• Answer:

  The antenna for FM would be absurdly long if it weren't loaded with a load circuit (often a coil) to increase the effective length of the antenna. You could improve the antenna but you would need to address both the antenna and the load circuit. It's going to be pretty obvious where it is on the circuit board if you're the sort that likes playing with electronics. Antennas are subtle beasties though. Bigger is not necessarily better. What matters is the ratio of good signal to bad signal. Since and antenna typically picks up in all directions, it is receiving bad signal in all directions except from the direction of the good signal. So a bigger antenna might receive more signal, but more of both the bad and good signal, so not altering the ratio (AKA the signal to noise ratio). However in a marginal situation, the internal noise of the radio will be an issue and a bigger antenna will improve the external signal over the internal noise (that doesn't change with antenna size). So in that case, bigger certainly is better. Bigger is rarely worse at those frequencies. The real trick is to hook in a directional antenna. Then you really are improving your reception, assuming you point it in the right direction. Get yourself a soldering iron, wire cutters and some google references for broadcast FM antennas and experiment. It will be fun and educational.