[mikethedruid]

Thanks Brad, Ed, Ron, Paul. The AM stations on my buttons are WSM, 650kc, Nashville TN, home of the Grand Ole Opry; WLW, 700kc, Cincinnati OH; WSB, 750kc, Atlanta GA; WLS, 890kc, Chicago IL; WRVA, 1140kc, Richmond VA, and WLAC, 1510kc, Nashville TN. I can pick up WOR, 710kc, New York NY very clearly using the regular tuning. In the evening the whole AM band is alive with stations. I am using an outdoor antenna I made myself. I have high tension power lines for the TVA running over my pasture less than 300 feet from my house, so that posed a real problem. I solved it by making a vertically oriented antenna using PVC pipe and fittings, 18 gauge bell wire, and some brass screws and nuts. It stands about 20 feet tall from the top of the first T fitting, then 18 inches to the bottom T fitting, and a 6 inch stub at the bottom. The bell wire runs through the pipe, from a brass screw in an end plug fitting at the top, down and through a hole at the top of the 18 inch section, then it is wound around the outside of the pipe until the remainder of the 75 foot roll of bell wire was used up except for about 1 foot which went back into the pipe through a hole just above the bottom T fitting, and then fastened to another brass screw that serves as a terminal at the bottom of the 6" section poking out through another end cap fitting. I covered the whole external loading coil part with a layer of black PVC electrical tape. The whole thing mounts vertically to a 4 x 4 bolted to my back steps using 1 foot stubs glued into the T fittings, threaded end fittings on the stubs, and threaded metal mounting flanges that secure it to the 4 x 4. Works VERY well. It's surprising how little interference I get from those power lines using it. By the way, I live in Sneedville, in northeast Tennessee, about 5 miles from the Virginia border, so none of the stations I mentioned are really nearby.