Antenna Recommendation for Stereo Console

I've been restoring some stereo consoles from Grundig and am to the point that I'm trying to get a recommendation on an external antenna for AM and Shortwave.  The internal dipole antennas work great for FM.  I've looked around at some of the Amazon and Best Buy antennas, but just suspect that those arent the best options for a 1950s or 1960s stereo console.

Any recommendations are much appreciated!

craig.

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I can't believe Amazon or Best Buy sell ANY suitable MW or SW aerials for ANY radio! I doubt that even the TV and VHF-FM aerials offered are "sensible".

SW can roughly be split at 14MHz or a bit less to an upper or lower band.

About 15m to 30m horizontal above ground (about 2m to 3m high) for  3MHz to 14MHz, A passive tuner or match box as used by ham transmitters dramatically improves performance.

For 14MHz to 30MHz a vertical rod or wire angled from top of gable end from 3m to 7m long is best. A passive tuner or match box as used by ham transmitters dramatically improves performance.

In both cases a Electricity service 1.2m Earth Spike in to lawn / flower bed near the radio is a minimum earth.

All wire aerials should be held up off wall / tree/ fence / pole at both ends by plastic rope or nylon builder's cord. The far end can be as long as needed and a minimum of 0.5. Long lengths of plastic cord are superior to tradional "egg" insulators.  I've even used $4 wire cored washing line successfully and also screened twisted pair wire (all wires shorted both ends). No need to buy "special" aerial wire. Bell Wire or speaker cable split in two to make two lengths works also.

Nerver near or parallel to phone wires or power cables (safety and interference).

On MW, unless a 1m or larger diameter tuned loop is used,  oddly unplugging the SW aerial and plugging the wire to the Earth Spike will work best (less than 3m to Earth Spike). Then either leave earth socket unused or clip to metal radiator/heating pipe. Much of any aerial less than 50m long and untuned will only swamp the radio with local interference. A  0.5m to 1m diameter loop is probably best on MW, but tuning and matching to the radio isn't trivial.

For VHF, the simplist omnidirectional solution isn't a Dipole (or worst is a Halo) but a Scanner User's Discone on the roof / gable end /chimney.

A CB base station 5m to nearly 6m "silver stick" aerial with the base loading coil removed and then a very short coax to an aerial matching box (ATU) clamped to a balcony (as earth) can work very well 7MHz to 50MHz and with a large adjustable series coil as low as 1.5MHz. Unfortunately you can only use an Automatic "Aerial tuner" (they don't "tune" the aerial, only match it, only loops are truly tuned) with a transmitter, you need a manual one for receive only. When background noise is highest or station loudest it's adjusted!

 

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