[stevehertz]

A long wire outdoor aerial for AM reception is something that I have been meaning to do for decades. Finally fed up with trying to pick up AM stations amidst the sound of crashing waves and rockets taking off (AKA digital hash interference), I did it. My kindly neighbour allowed me (well, my local rigger) to fit a lashing kit to his chimney, and I did the rest myself. From the lashing kit, using egg insulators I hung black PVC covered wire across to my recently made redundant, under the eaves insulators that until last year held my mains supply cables. From there the downlead went down to ground floor level and in to the house through a hole drilled in the top corner of a plastic window frame. I used a length of clear plastic tubing to shroud the wire as it turns a corner and passes through the hole. The bit of yellow tape at that point is soon to be replaced with amalgamating tape.

I fired up a hifi tuner using just its ferrite rod AM antenna, and as usual the noise was atrocious, unlistenable. Then, connecting the aerial wire it was as if I had switched to FM! On R5Live, no sign whatsoever of digital interference and the bandwidth so much better too. Job done at last, well pleased!