I can't get many AM stations at work ----

[LisaM]

And we just got Air America! I am in an office building. If I get a better radio, will that help? I seem to be able to pull in about 5 stations - most of them FM. I don't have a very good radio, just a small clock radio.

[jdots]

1. you lucky head Air America is great

A.M. is a real tuff one to get some places,metal buidings and all.
wish i knew,you could try a coat hanger for free it could work.

[The Great Escape]

2. I Have One Of These (link) In My Office and One At Home....

I have not had a better radio and it fits nicely on your desk.\




http://www.ccrane.com/ccradio-plus-am-fm-radio.aspx

[MissMillie]

3. Can you stream it online?

That's what I do.

[LisaM]

4. I used to stream it but something went awry

I accidentally got booted off my work computer a few months ago and IT had to come fix it (it said I didn't have any rights to log in.) That got fixed just fine, but when I try to use Real Player, it gives me a link to a proxy server, and I can't log in to that (when my other rights were restored, this wasn't.) I'm sure that this is an oversight, but I don't feel that I can ask the IT people to fix that just so I can listen to the radio. So I was hoping that I could just get it on the radio, now that it's local, What does the metal have to do with it? There is a large metal shelf by my window, also. I also have no idea what a proxy server is.

[UL_Approved]

8. Electromagnetic theory and RF principles

The purpose of considering metal in radio reception is due to the fact that any metal surface acts similar to a mirror for any wave below a certain frequency. Long story short, any insulator (plastic, wood, air, or a vacuum) will not generally affect the reception of a signal. Metal, however, is opaque to radio waves, microwave, infrared, and visible light. Higher frequencies (X-ray and beyond) can go through lighter metals like aluminum. If you have metal between you and the signal source, it will be like having a mirror between you and a light source. That old trick that the "tin foil crazies" use to block the supposed "control messages from the liberal media and <insert token Democrat>" is, surprisingly, not too far from the truth. HOWEVER, for this to work, something has to be completely surrounded in a metal shell, either entirely solid, or with no hole larger than a certain size. You can try this by wrapping up a cell phone or cordless phone in two or three layers of aluminum foil, making sure there are no gaps around the edges of the sheet. The rule is that no hole can be larger than half the wavelength of the incident plane wave. As an example, aluminum window or storm door screen, when properly constructed into a shell, has a bandwidth of about 150 GHz. This means that signals below this frequency either are severely reduced. You have to take several years of college physics and electrical engineering to understand most of this thread, but if one studies it, the universe is an entirely different place.

[UL_Approved]

5. Reception considerations

If you can get your radio by a window, that would probably be the best. If you are in a metal building, you should be on the side facing the radio tower of the station you want. If you can't get access to those conditions, try putting the radio by different frame members of the building to see if that helps. Your last resort is to run a strip of aluminum foil from your antenna to the outside of the building. The building must have a metal skin for this to work, and the strip must only touch the antenna, the building exterior, and non-conductive materials along the way. No window screens either. The window screens need to be removed for the window you are near anyway for AM.

[LisaM]

6. I'm 39 stories up...

I can't run anything outside the window! But at least I am starting to understand the problem better.

[LisaM]

7. Okay, you guys are the BEST!

I moved my radio from one window frame to the other, put it next to a metal strip that could act as an antenna, and now I'm getting Air America!

You guys ROCK.