What is this antenna clamp called?

[DirtFarmer]

Hello, this is my first post here. My old tabletop radios have these antenna clamps attached to the power cord, but I just picked up a nice Silvertone that does not have this clamp.

What is the proper term for them, and where can I buy them? Or can I pry one off of another radio? Or can I use something instead of this?

Thanks in advance from a noob!

[old_coot88]

It's a coupling gimmick for using the line cord as an FM antenna. Generally pretty useless (in most cases).

[Electronic M]

You could probably do what some radios did and connect the line cord to the antenna with a 3KV ceramic disc capacitor somewhere in the neighborhood of 100pF.

If you can tolerate about 6' of cable as an antenna search for a 300 ohm FM folded dipole antenna...Those work much better than the cord.

[Username1]

.

Those little pieces of sheet metal formed into a kind of "c" that was tight enough to
hold the power cord in place were very common years ago. My shop use to install
dozens of them on AM/FM clock radios notorious for having poor reception on FM.
They did work, and work very well, especially if you were in an otherwise strong
to mid- signal area. They could not perform miracles but worked so well we
always had them on hand. I have no idea what they were called, we had
boxes of them as we did warranty work on a few clock radio brands.
You can easily make one out of sheet metal, and use a piece
of plastic from any flexible food container as an insulator.
If you look inside the radio, you often find that there
is NO FM antenna at all, just a wire running to that
screw terminal, so that "gimmick" was the antenna.

Part of the insulator's job is to prevent the metal from
chafing through the line cord, so keep that in mind.
The insulator was longer than the sheet metal
that held the cord.

It works by magic, kinda like chicken soup
on the common cold.....

.

[init4fun]

Originally Posted by DirtFarmer

..... Or can I use something instead of this...

Sure. Take a piece of solid (not stranded) insulated wire about 2 feet long, strip about 1/4" of the insulation and connect the bare end to the antenna terminal, and then wrap the wire around the power cord

[DavGoodlin]

Lower part of FM band has 1/4 wavelength of 32 inches, most line cords are longer so this is a compromise as opposed to a monopole or loose wire that is much easier to position for best reception.

If you stretch the line cord kind of straight for this length, it usually works for stronger stations. Otherwise, run a grounded coax line from the terminals to a better spot in an attic or outdoors, then even a monopole works.