Can a wire AM antenna be added to a radio?

[fan-of-fans]

I have a GE Spacemaker radio that has an AM/FM/Weatherband radio, a CD player and a audio input jack. On AM it picks up nothing at all. Just static and on a few stations strange sounds.

I've opened up the unit and it seems to use some kind of rod as the AM antenna. Would it be possible to attach a wire to that bar and get better reception?

For FM and Weatherband it seems to use the power cord as the antenna. GE recommend the cord be extended out as far as possible. I do find having the cord stretched out instead of looped together or wrapped around the cord storage does improve the FM a lot. But it can be quite temperamental. For example if it touches another cord or sometimes if I walk in front of the radio, it gets static. As long as the cord is well extended and separated it works fine. But as I said it doesn't do anything on AM...

I've noticed some clock radios I've used also use the power cord for FM, but to get any AM they use a antenna that looks like wire looped around a square frame. Suppose you need a larger antenna due to the width of the AM frequency.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

Here are my radio's antennae for both my AM and FM and each come in clearly:

-- Dave

 

[kd12]

Soviet Alarm Clock

You can wire a radio directly to an antenna without problems. In Soviet times, the Russian government gave people a radio that had a special two-prong plug for plugging into a wall socket connected to their apartment building’s antenna. You could set something up like that on your roof, similar in concept but much smaller than the old TV antennas that everyone had back in the day. Run the wire thru the wall to the inside and connect to a plug or switch. BUT, make sure it is well insulated and grounded in case of lightning. Interesting fact – Russians used their radios as alarm clocks because the Soviet national anthem would be the first thing played every morning.