Terk Indoor AM Antenna Advantage

I'm a complete novice at anything to do with radios, but I recently purchased a vintage tube radio, a fully restored RCA T7-5 tombstone. The radio looked beautiful, but with the 15-foot wire antenna supplied with the set, it sounded only fair--lots of noise, even with strong local AM stations. Running 70 feet of wire out the window and hanging it over the limb of a nearby tree greatly improved the reception, but my wife quickly put an end to that, stating: "We're not going to look like the Clampetts!" I did my homework and spent a couple of days reading about loop antennas. I'm not very technical, so I decided to purchase, rather than try to build, a loop antenna. After reading all the reviews I could find, I decided to give the Terk Advantage a try. The Terk can be used via inductive coupling--that is, with no direct connection to the radio--provided you have a fairly modern AM radio that has an internal antenna. But my old tube radio required me to connect the antenna to the set directly with the supplied cable. The 6-foot cable plugs into the base of the Terk. The cable terminates with two bare wires. Attach one of these wires to the antenna terminal, and the other to the ground terminal. (If you attach both wires to the antenna terminal, as I did when I first hooked it up, it won't work.) Begin by setting the dial at the base of the Terk to roughly the same setting as the station to which the radio is set. Next, tune the radio's dial until you get the best reception. Then tune the dial on the Terk--again, until you get the best reception. Finally, remember that loop antennas are directional. Rotate the loop in small increments until you further adjust the reception (when it's out of alignment, you'll hear very little). Almost instantly, the difference in reception was impressive--noticeably better than the wire strung in the tree. With the Terk, local stations come in crystal clear on my tube radio that is nearly 80 years old, and the first night I played with it I was pulling stations in from New York and Quebec (I'm in Massachusetts). The Terk is small enough so that it can sit behind the set unseen (as a modern loop antenna just doesn't look right sitting atop a vintage tombstone radio)--aesthetically much nicer than wire strung around the room. To test the Terk's inductive coupling--that is, to use it wirelessly--I used a small portable Grundig radio that had belonged to my father. This radio is perhaps 30 years old. The radio has a tuning light that lights up red when you lock on a station. I tested it by finding AM stations for which I could get some reception, but would not make the light come on. I followed basically the same steps described above: First, tune the radio to the best reception you can get. Then pre-tune the Terk to the radio's same approximate setting. Next, place the Terk next to the radio and fine-tune the dial on the Terk to get the best reception. Finally, move the Terk in a circular motion, keeping it next to the radio, to further tune it. Using the Terk in this manner, I was almost always able to get the tuning light to light up and greatly improve the radio's reception. And even when the tuning light did not light up, reception was still greatly improved. For those reviewers who wrote that the Terk did nothing to improve reception, I just can't believe they were using it correctly. You'll have to play with this a bit to get the feel of using the Terk with your particular radio, but this is within anyone's capabilities. This little device has so boosted the performance of my AM radios that I can't imagine owning an AM radio without one.

This indoor AM (standard broadcast band) antenna works extremely well with my ICOM R-75 communications receiver. (connected to "Antenna 2", the 500 ohm terminals) My outdoor antenna (Cobra UltraLite Junior, connected to "Antenna 1") works great for all of the higher frequencies, Amateur and International Shortwave, for which it is designed. But I was needing an antenna that is designed for use on the frequencies of standard AM broadcast band, and had no desire to put up another outdoor antenna, especially a "long-wire." This "tunable" indoor loop antenna is a great solution. Here are a couple things that should be known about it's use: 1. When changing from one station to another, it is absolutely critical to re-tune the antenna every time. -even when the stations are very close to each other. The tuning resonance of this antenna quite sharp, which in my opinion indicates a very good design. 2. The antenna is very "directional," which simply means that you need to "peak the signal strength" by changing its orientation. -just experiment with rotating it around left or right for the highest signal level. I suspect the vast majority of IC-R75 owners are using their receivers only on the "HF bands." However for anyone who wishes to also receive the standard broadcast band, this "Terk Indoor AM Antenna" should be a perfect choice. It is a very clean design with full width rubber covered base. The tuning control is a nice size, very smooth, and easy to use. UPDATE 20 March 2017: I have now used this antenna on many radios of all types, and it is FANTASTIC. It works well both wired and wireless. For anyone that is dissatisfied with this antenna, I have a couple of suggestions. First, in today's RF environment there is an absolutely ridiculous amount of "digital noise." -with computers being one of the worst offenders. As electronics technology "advances" the level of radiated digital noise continues to invade the AM band. For best performance, you will need to be several feet away from digital electronic devices. Secondly, your expectations may be unreasonable. The "AM broadcast band" is what it is: It is Amplitude Modulated and subject to all manner of atmospheric interference. You cannot magically make it something it is not. I am totally impressed with the performance of this antenna. For me it working as good or better than a "RF Pre-selector" and whole lot less complicated.

This was a return item that was repackaged. However many people return these antennas because they require a little skill to work properly. They will not always improve a good signal. Weaker signals will gain an improvement in strength and clarity. It is in great shape, works properly and has all the parts. So rather than return it I will keep it. This is a quality product and I use it with my cccrane skywave radio.

It performs as expected. The coax should've been longer.

It works.

I live in the Toronto area and have gotten AM as far as Philadelphia pretty clearly using this antenna. I can pull in Boston, NYC, and Detroit clearly on the regular. Some nights Chicago, but is dependent on weather conditions. I would mark that as impressive results for an antenna of this price range. I'm able to pull in stations from hundreds of miles away. To get these results you do need start with a decent radio. Something with some sensitivity. The C Crane is a great all purpose radio. I've gotten the best results using this antenna in combination with the Sony ICF-SW7600GR. You just can't go wrong with this classic Sony model for all frequencies for it's price range. As other users here pointed out with full explanation, you do need to know the bare bones about radio to make this work for you. Having said that, if you refuse to read up a bit and learn something beyond what our current push button smartphone app world has become.....sorry you won't get instant results with radio DXing. Read a bit about radio, and the difference between FM, MW, and SW and how it all works. I'd mention LW too, but it's no longer applicable in North America. AM(MW) is a great intro to DXing. Overall, this antenna is a great choice for the money and very easy to use. There is no setup, no wires to hang around your living quarters, no giant loops to place in windows, etc. You really can't go wrong for the price.

Doesn't work much better than the diy antenna i built (ultimate am antenna) from instructions I found on the internet.

This item made no difference to the reception