help: DIY antenna for portable CD player (?)

I've got one of these new portable cd players with a built-in FM tuner, and
used to keep it on my desk at work to listen to the radio all the time.
However, I've switched jobs and the radio reception at my new job really
stinks. I'm wondering if there's a way to augment the antenna strength on
this thing? There's no visible antenna on the player at all, and I've read
(but not sure I believe) that the antenna is incorporated into the earphone
wiring or something like that.

My description seems a bit vague, so here's a picture of the thing (from
amazon.com):

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...TVPDKIKX0DER&vi=pictures&img=14#more-pictures

Any ideas on how to boost the antenna's reception?

Thanks,
Ian

 

It is not easy. You have to open the unit, find where the internal antenna
connects, bring out a wire, run that wire outside, outside of the metal
shell of the building and erect a wire outside as an antenna.

Basically, when confronted with this kind of situation, find another station
that comes in better, buy a radio that might work better (you cannot tell
until you try it) or give up.

 

Dan Fraser top-posted without trimming:

Or you could buy some CDs.

Cheers!
Rich

 

If reception outside the building is crap then you're stuck.

If it is okay outside the building then you can overcome the problem
by using two additional antennas. Real antennas, not bits of wire.
Mount one outside the building, pointing in the general direction of
the transmitter site and one inside the room or area where you work,
pointing generally towards you. Connect the two with the type of
cable for which they were designed.

 

Thanks for the answers so far, which suggest the poor radio reception might
be as much or more a problem with my surroundings (i.e. building
construction attenuating signal strength) as it is with a crappy antenna on
the CD player, which I had originally wrote the problem off as. At least
I've got a few new tests to try to see if I can pinpoint exactly what is
causing the crappy signal.

On the idea of wiring into the unit itself... any ideas on how the antenna
works in one of these portable radio/CD players? Is the antenna really
wired along (into?) the headphones as I had read somewhere?

 

couldn't you just wire a hifi tuner type fm aerial to the appropriate
headphone lines, with maybe a passive high pass filter to keep the audio
signal out of the aerial?

e.g. wire up a jack plug and socket something like this:


1.5 nF
||
Left o--o---------------o-------||---------o
| | || |
| .-. |
| | | |
| | |1 kOhm |
| '-' |
| | |
Gnd o--|--o------------o------------------|----------------o
| | | |
| | .-. |
| | | | |
| | | |1 kOhm | Aerial
| | '-' |
| | | || |
Right o---|--|--o---------o-------||---------o----------------o
| | | ||
| | | 1.5 nF (3dB point = 100 KHz)
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
o o o
Left Gnd Right



I don't know if this would work though, or if it's the right way to do the
filter - it's a question not a solution.

 

Where I live is on the outskirtrs of good FM reception. Using a longer
headphone wire improves reception. As does positioning the wire"just
so"
ERS