On Fri, 11 Feb 2005 19:10:58 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
Cynic wrote:
Ferrite rod aerials are irrelevant to UHF. Or even HF, if you look at
the average radio which includes SW.

I have seen many radios with ferrite aerials for shortwave.

Perhaps you'd name one? All the ones I've seen have some form of whip
aerial for SW reception. More efficient, for a start, and would be on MF
as well - except that it would be too long for a portable.

The ferrite has the advantage of allowing you to null out an
interfering station. Interference was more of a problem on domestic
sets with wide IF's than sensitivity.

I recall a set that had a ferrite for LW, MW and 3 SW bands. There
was an aerial socket as well, which connected to a separate coil on
the ferrite IIRC. A knob on the front was connected via a string &
pullies which allowed the user to rotate the ferrite for best
reception.

Can't tell you the make - it was a while back. It had a triple-gang
air spaced tuning capacitor, a complex pully system to connect the
tuning knob, capacitor and indicator needle that I never managed to
get mechanically working quite right. Five valves in the receive
circuit (one a dual triode, ECC83 I think, so effectively 6 active
devices), a double anode rectifier valve and a neon voltage stabiliser
tube. Also a "magic eye" tube as a tuning indicator.

I remember it very well because I found it quite badly damaged in a
scrap heap & rebuilt it after tracing the circuit & figuring out what
valves to put in the empty sockets. Very proud of that radio, I was,
but as it had no case my parents would not allow it in the house, it
had to stay in the workshop.

Some of the new-fangled portable radios (AKA "trannies") had ferrites
for SW as well as a whip aerial. A 9-transistor set I saved up for
and bought new could receive SW on the ferrite alone, or extend the
whip for weaker stations. (The label said it was a 10 transistor set,
but one was being used as a diode, so I didn't count it). Then
silicon started to replace germanium, radios came with a strange new
band called "FM" and things went downhill from there ...

Talk about an AC/DC "trannie" to the youth of today, and they totally
misinterpret what you are talking about.

--
Cynic