Standard SR-A205SU, Need Help

[radiation]

Hello Everyone, this is my first post would would like to start off buy saying I live in Oklahoma City, I am new to FM Dxing, but not radios, and shortwave.

I bought a real nice AM/FM/MPX radio from Standard Radio Corp(dont know the mfg year). Its has a real wood case, real metel knobs.

It has an internal ferrite bar for AM, and picks up FM nicly without an antenna.

My question, Ive uploaded some pics to show that is has two FM ant terminals, as if it for a Dipole? What would I have to do to use a Yagi? or some type of other antenna?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24776335@N08/

Having some wire just thrown about looks kinda tacky for the FM dipole, I like my wires hidden, but its not a must.

The AM ant, I have used a Longwire, because a external loop seems to have no affect on this radio, Ive tryed 3 different Tuned Loops, and one Broadband Loop, I know the terminals are connected, other wise the longwire wouldnt work, and I know ground is working, Ive tested in with a Multimeter.

Point/Question Is What would be the best antenna to use for FM and AM on a older radio like this?

This should be a easy thing for me, but its got me scratching my head.
Or does anyone know where I could find the service manual, if at all possible.

Thanks to anyone who can help me.

[Mike-CT]

I bought a real nice AM/FM/MPX radio from Standard Radio Corp(dont know the mfg year). Its has a real wood case, real metel knobs.

It has an internal ferrite bar for AM, and picks up FM nicly without an antenna.

My question, Ive uploaded some pics to show that is has two FM ant terminals, as if it for a Dipole? What would I have to do to use a Yagi? or some type of other antenna?

The two terminals for FM date back to the days when you attached 300ohm twinlead to those terminals, either for an indoor dipole, or for an outdoor antenna. Although some tuners/receivers still come with 300 ohm dipoles, these days 72 ohm coax is what's used, and to attach coax to your radio you need to connect the coax to a matching 72ohm-300ohm transformer (also called a balun), which in turn is connected to the terminals on your radio. On the other end, if you use an outdoor antenna you need to connect another balun to the other end of the coax and attach that to your antenna. You seldom ever see rolls of 300ohm twinlead anymore because coax is so much superior, and it's not expensive anyway.

Point/Question Is What would be the best antenna to use for FM and AM on a older radio like this?

I'll stay away from the AM stuff and stick with the FM. You could use rabbit ears for an antenna indoors. You could use a TV antenna. As far as fringe FM antennas, there are very few and what there are cost big bucks (The APS series, for example).

To be honest, I don't know much about that receiver you bought. It doesn't sound like any brand I've heard of so I can't tell you about the quality of it. I would hate to recommend an expensive antenna for it and then find out that the radio had poor specs to begin with. That would be a huge waste of money.

Try some cheap bunny ears first. That might be all you need.

[Russ-PA]

I'd be inclined to run a yagi into the usual 75/50 ohm adaptor and run coax to it and connect to the two terminals. You can use either a dipole or a yagi on the newer ones and they still have a two-connector plug of some kind, and once you've used the transformer/adaptor, you've largely converted the impedance and taken the traditional concept of 'ground' out of the picture.

[radiation]

Thank you for the help, I figured since you guys have more experence with Tuners than I do.

Ill be using this one, and 1 or 2 more radios for FMdxing, try to get as much in as I can, since hearing analog will be fading away.

How do I find these filters? Ive looked inside my radio and there doesnt seem to be any type of filter, but the FM AFC switch on the radio lets me get to a station between 2 others, as if im switching from a high-khz filter to a small-khz filter?

Thanks you to everyone.

[Mike-CT]

Ill be using this one, and 1 or 2 more radios for FMdxing, try to get as much in as I can, since hearing analog will be fading away.

Analog is changing to digital on television, not FM radio! There is no mandated conversion date for a conversion to digital on FM. If it ever happens at all, it will take years. I doubt it ever happens at all.

[radiation]

Oh I thought I read somewhere that in 10yrs it might be all HD radio. I could be wrong, might just be a side affect of this darn DTV :rolleyes: I personaly hate that we "have" to have it not that I hate the DTV

Anyways I bought a Teac T-R600 AM/FM Tuner for 10$ at a pawnshop it has RDS, only bad this is you need a rcvr to hear it.

[Russ-PA]

The folks who are backing HD radio on FM would like very much to believe that within ten years or less analog radio on FM will go away. If that occurs at some point farther out than that, I believe both digital and analog will share the same fate - done in by other media.

As to the filter/matcher, Radio Shack has them, and I would imagine Circuit City and Best Buy might also. It is used to match the impedance of the antenna to that of the receiver/tuner and also to convert from the two terminals on most yagi antennas to a coaxial feedline to the tuner or receiver. Using coax - RG-6 also available at RS is recommended - reduces signal loss and also reduces infiltration of unwanted signals.

[radiation]

You can buy the Caramic Filters at radioshack?

I found them on my TEAC radio theres two wish I knew what one to replace, but on my old radio I couldnt find em.

[Russ-PA]

I'm not speaking of ceramic filters. I'm speaking of the adaptor/impedance transformer for the antenna line.

[w9wi]

It has an internal ferrite bar for AM, and picks up FM nicly without an antenna.

...

The AM ant, I have used a Longwire, because a external loop seems to have no affect on this radio, Ive tryed 3 different Tuned Loops, and one Broadband Loop, I know the terminals are connected, other wise the longwire wouldnt work, and I know ground is working, Ive tested in with a Multimeter.


I think the first sentence explains why an external loop has no effect. The internal antenna is always connected, even when you also connect an external antenna. The external loop is no better at receiving signals than the ferrite bar, and you can't use the external loop's nulls to reduce interference because the interfering signals are still coming in on the internal bar.

A longwire is probably going to be the only external AM antenna that's going to help on this set.

You can't disconnect the ferrite bar because it also forms part of the "preselector", the first tuned circuit that prevents "image" reception of stations 910KHz above the frequency of the desired station.

As for FM, I'd just hook up a typical TV "balun" transformer, available at Radio Shack/Wal-Mart/Lowe's/etc.. and use it to connect any regular 75-ohm antenna - Yagi etc... How far are you from the local towers? I seem to recall they're all clustered in pretty much one place in Oklahoma City, so if you aren't too close to that place you should be in good shape -- but if you *are* close to the towers you might have some overload problems.

Good luck!