[hsusmann]

Pithicus999:

About the shadow meter. If you have no light showing through
then it either means the light bulb is bad right behind the meter
or the flapper vane is stuck. On my radio here when there is no shadow it means
that max current is going through the coil and is pinning the flapper
to one side.

Thus, if the flapper is not simply stuck, it probably means the coil
is good. It is easy to ohm out the coil to answer that question.

On mine, a spider had built a nest inside the meter and there were
all these spider webs in there pinning the vane down so it couldn't move.
I was able to clean it out with a wire poking both from front and back.

Re: the length of antenna needed. If you want to pick up the weak
stations you will need a fairly long antenna (20+ ft). If you have
a couple of strong nearby stations then you can get by with a shorter
antenna. Getting the far end of the wire up high will also help with
the weaker stations. I have mine on a 200 ft or so wire going up into
a tree.

Herb S.