[cowboy44]

Hello! I am asking this for my dad so bear with me. My dad purchased a 1935 Philco catherdral AM radio from a 90 year old man. The man used rabbit ears with 2 long wires attached to alligator clips that attached to the back of the radio to pick up lots of stations. My dad was unable to talk him into selling the rabbit ears. My dad can only receive a couple stations without this 'antenna'. My dad is saying he needs a ground antenna. So where might I purchase something like these rabbit ears or some sort of inside antenna to help receive more stations? He is elderly and doesn't get around much so this is something he really enjoys and would love to help him out with this. Any and all help would be appreciated. Sorry if I didn't post this in the right forum.

[Phlogiston]

Go get him about 20ft of cheap, insulated, flexible wire (Ace Hardware) in a color to match his carpet or floor. Hook it to the insulated antenna post after stripping back about an inch if insulation. Do not hook anything to the ground post. Lay the wire on the floor or better yet, hang it vertically if possible. 

Report back. This should be good enough without a ground.

[cowboy44]

Go get him about 20ft of cheap, insulated, flexible wire (Ace Hardware) in a color to match his carpet or floor. Hook it to the insulated antenna post after stripping back about an inch if insulation. Do not hook anything to the ground post. Lay the wire on the floor or better yet, hang it vertically if possible. 

Report back. This should be good enough without a ground.

Don't mean to be stupid but my hubby will probably be the one hooking it up, how do we know which is the insulated antenna post on the radio and which is the ground antenna post?

[klondike98]

There are no stupid questions here...
It might help to know exactly which radio we are talking about, a picture of the front and back might help if you don't know the model number, but in general in that time frame the antenna and ground were connected to clips on the chassis as seen below:

[Image: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5462...ground.jpg]

The clip on the left is the insulated one (i.e. insulated from the chassis with the round wafer you see it sitting on.  The one on the right is connected directly to the chassis and is the ground.  So you clip that 20 foot long wire to the one on the left and it should pick up stations.  As Russ suggested, let us know if its working or not.  It would also be good to know if the fellow that you bought the radio from had it serviced recently.  If its still operating on the original electrolytic and paper capacitors it probably won't be working too much longer.  

[Phlogiston]

There are no stupid questions here...
It might help to know exactly which radio we are talking about, a picture of the front and back might help if you don't know the model number, but in general in that time frame the antenna and ground were connected to clips on the chassis as seen below:

[Image: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5462...ground.jpg]

The clip on the left is the insulated one (i.e. insulated from the chassis with the round wafer you see it sitting on.  The one on the right is connected directly to the chassis and is the ground.  So you clip that 20 foot long wire to the one on the left and it should pick up stations.  As Russ suggested, let us know if its working or not.  It would also be good to know if the fellow that you bought the radio from had it serviced recently.  If its still operating on the original electrolytic and paper capacitors it probably won't be working too much longer.  

Yes, and the last two sentences above are SO important that they bear repeating (though you can just read them again above).

[cowboy44]

There are no stupid questions here...
It might help to know exactly which radio we are talking about, a picture of the front and back might help if you don't know the model number, but in general in that time frame the antenna and ground were connected to clips on the chassis as seen below:

[Image: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5462...ground.jpg]

The clip on the left is the insulated one (i.e. insulated from the chassis with the round wafer you see it sitting on.  The one on the right is connected directly to the chassis and is the ground.  So you clip that 20 foot long wire to the one on the left and it should pick up stations.  As Russ suggested, let us know if its working or not.  It would also be good to know if the fellow that you bought the radio from had it serviced recently.  If its still operating on the original electrolytic and paper capacitors it probably won't be working too much longer.  

Thanks for all your help. It may be a week before I get back to you but I will let you know what the results are. I appreciate your help!

[cowboy44]

UPDATE! I bought wire it was 16AWG cable principal wire. Hope that was ok. I helped my dad attach the wire the antenna clip in the back. He can pick up a few more stations but not all are clear they are staticky. He only has the wire on the floor, I told him it may help to hang it on the wall. Would that be correct? He doesn't need anything else correct? I am going to try to attach pics of the back & front if that may help with anymore info/help you can give me. Thanks again sorry how do I attach the 2 pics?

[mikethedruid]

First, and nobody has asked it, on a regular pocket transistor radio, can you receive a lot of AM stations where you are ? If so, your problems probably go beyond the antenna and ground. Even with just about ten feet of wire attached to the antenna terminal, even with no ground, you should be able to pick up all the strong local stations. How long ago, if ever, was that radio last serviced ? I would do a thorough rebuild of it before I did anything further, rather than risk damaging the power transformer, or anything else difficult to replace.

[Radioroslyn]

Cell phone and laptop battery chargers (and other modern electronic devices) can generate a lot of noise that you radio can pickup. In some instances it can be stronger that your local stations. You can use a small transistor set to find these culprits.

Terry

[cowboy44]

Ok I tried to attach the pics but they are to large & I dont know how to resize them, sorry I will try the other suggestions. Would he need anything for the ground antenna or anything else? Thanks You all are very nice with answering my many questions.

[Paul Philco322]

I used to get WWVA 1170 up in Boston, I liked the overnite Trucker show. As the guys have said perhaps you can have some one check under the chassis and see if the set has had capacitors updated and wiring checked. Get some body who knows radio or electronic work to do it if you are not completely comfortable.

Regards,

Paul

[Art Hoch]

Thumbs plus 7 is a good free program to resize photos AND perform other tasks.

[markmokris]

If you look in the back of the radio, can you see a sticker with the Philco Model number? Either stuck to the metal chassis or a paper label of some sort against the left or right wall inside the cabinet?

Some Philco cathedral models were better performers than others. But like it has been mentioned here, a 20 ft. piece of wire should work fine on pretty much all off them and as well as rabbit ears.

The radio could have a problem, and if it has never been serviced, it really should be to avoid worse problems.

Mark K8KZ

[AI2V]

For sure the radio could use an IF tweaking at the least. If you can find an antique radio club in WV, you could contact them for assistance and direction.