Clock radio antenna connections

[EdBert]

This seems like a simple question I should be able to find the answer to, but I'm not getting far searching the web.

I'd like to better understand the antenna connections on some of the clock radios, and am hoping someone here can fill in the gaps.

A number of the radios have a metal sleeve clamped around the power cable:




What does this do? Does it turn the power cable into an FM antenna?

Another common set of terminals is this one:



I'm wanting to connect external antennas to these, but I don't know how best to do this. I have an AM wire loop antenna from a piece of old hifi equipment I can poach. Do I just attach both ends of the wire loop to the one AM ANT terminal? For the FM, if I have T dipole antenna, do I just connect one spade to the FM ANT and the other to the earth? Or alternatively, if I am using a piece of coax cable, do I connect the centre wire to the FM ANT and the exposed shielding braid to the earth? Or does the earth need to go to proper ground, such as the earth in a wall power receptacle (one that is not being used to supply power to anything of course)?

Any insights or advice would be gratefully received. Thanks.

[Mackey]

With the help of a friend on eBay I have some more information for you. The power cord is certainly used as an FM antenna. The ground is recommended to be connected to any ground source, and the AM would go to an AM antenna of course, FM the same. See details from the user manual from an RC-7462 below. These clocks also have an internal ferrite bar antenna for AM but there are resources online about how this can be improved with an external antenna.




Back of a Panasonic RC-7462 showing antenna connections.


From the Panasonic RC-7462 User Manual - Click for full-sized image.

See the eBay Listing for this clock

I'm wanting to connect external antennas to these, but I don't know how best to do this. I have an AM wire loop antenna from a piece of old hifi equipment I can poach. Do I just attach both ends of the wire loop to the one AM ANT terminal? For the FM, if I have T dipole antenna, do I just connect one spade to the FM ANT and the other to the earth? Or alternatively, if I am using a piece of coax cable, do I connect the centre wire to the FM ANT and the exposed shielding braid to the earth? Or does the earth need to go to proper ground, such as the earth in a wall power receptacle (one that is not being used to supply power to anything of course)?

Any insights or advice would be gratefully received. Thanks.

Some of your questions may be answered, but there's no reason you can't test out your other ideas on your clock. There's no way you're going to damage anything. Let us know how it goes.

[EdBert]

Fantastic, thanks Mackey! I took a look at that listing earlier too, and when I saw the pictures of the manual posted I was hoping they had some info on the external antennas, but unfortunately that page wasn't there. But, you just posted it here - awesome :-) This forum and its contributors are amazing, I've got so much useful info here already. Thank you all.

I'll do some testing and see what works the best. Will let you know.

PS - did people really used to have massive AM aerials on their roofs like that?

[Mackey]

Thanks for the kind words

...
PS - did people really used to have massive AM aerials on their roofs like that?

I personally never saw anything like that, but to this day you have radio hobbyists (not flip clock radio, just radio in general) who rig up all kinds of intricate arrays to pull in signals from all over the world. Usually inside the home from what I've read.