Aerial for radio?

travel_freak

Hi,

Please excuse my extreme un-techieness but ...

I have an old hi-fi system which has a radio, CD and tape but I can't manage to tune in the radio at all, just no reception at all.

At the back it has a place for plugging in an aerial, looks similar to the type of aerial you plug into a TV.

Does this mean it won't work without an aerial and if so please can anyone tell me what sort of aerial I need to get it to work? Seems strange as another radio I have works without an aerial .... confused?!

Thx in advance.

A_Nice_Englishman

Are we talking about FM radio? Try something like this
http://cpc.farnell.com/jsp/search/browse.jsp?N=411+500001+1000644&Ntk=gensearch_003&Ntt=fm+aerial&Ntx=



or even a bit of wire stuck in the socket!

bookduck

travel_freak wrote: »

... no reception at all...

Nothing, not even distorted, or quiet sound? If you live in a city esp. London, there is so much RF floating around, you should pick up something even with no aerial.

Your HiFi, would not consist of separates would it, which the plugs have fallen out, or has been wrongly wired up by friends nosey kids?

I think the radio, cd and tape ouputs have similar specs like one can be plugged into the other. A record player is different.

Lastly I have to admit I have an old amp (30+ years) that I once used 11 years ago with more knobs on it than inside the cockpit of a 757 plane. To get it working I have to spend some time and familiarize myself again - but that is just me

travel_freak

Hi,

Thanks for the replies. What I'm getting is lots of white noise, hissing, you know when you can't find a channel? It has a digital display and I've scrolled through up and down - there's FM, MW and LW - but the same on all of these.

At the back there is:
1. A place to plug in what looks like a TV-style aerial which has "FM" printed next to it.

2. Above this are two weird black switch type things, which flick up and down and which say "Ext Ant" and "AM Loop". Clueless.... and yes, it's currently in London!

Many thanks to anyone who can enlighten me....

toasterman

travel_freak wrote: »

At the back there is:
1. A place to plug in what looks like a TV-style aerial which has "FM" printed next to it.

It's to plug in one of these: http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=22497&criteria=fm%20aerial&doy=29m6

I've generally found them to be pretty poor quality though, compared to just a normal telescopic aerial on a cheap portable radio. There are telescopic and powered versions of the same, which might be better...hopefully someone else will answer that one.