I have a rather strange question. How can I increase my reception on AM radio? I am watching the hockey playoffs and can't stand the VS announcers. I am trying to get the play by play from a Buffalo AM station (Iam in NJ). I am picking up reception by hooking up 14 gauge speaker wire from my 990. It's decent, but I was wondering if there was anything that I could do simply and quickly? Thanks

The best bet's probably to look into alternate antennas, but I do so little AM listening that I'm a pretty poor resource on that subject. Does the 14ga wire work better than the loop antenna that came with the 990?

A few google-generated options include this pretty good loop antenna resource page and a $100 antenna that was reviewed here - I probably wouldn't start with the C.Crane product without looking at some other options first.

Thanks for the info Gonk. Actually the 14 guage wire works better than anything else! Also I don't listen enough to spend a lot of money an antenna. Only during the hockey playoffs to get my hometown. Thanks again!

Glad I could help (or not, as the case may be)

As a very former amateur radio operator I can tell you it is largely about size. If you have a yard and can string wires between trees that is what will do it. A 1/2 wave dipole is something like this

A 1/2 wave at am radio frequencies is something like 500 feet so if you live in an apartment this is out but if you have loads of land all it takes is cheap wire.

Disclaimer: This is from memory when I was a teen 30 years ago and might not be accurate.