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Test your prepper radio,make a DIY RDF,locate all stations and signal strength in your area

3,818 views · Published 17 March 2013 · 2:54 · Indexed 25 October 2026

Channel: Robb's Homemade Life · 2013 · Howto & Style

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Here is how to locate all the radio station locations in your area to test the signal reception of your radio. Also, how to make a crude DIY home made RDF radio Direction Finder.
 I recently purchased a highly recommended $10 AM/FM radio, the SONY AM/FM ICF-S10MK2  to use as a back up or travel radio. I was told the Sony was excellent in its ability to receive many AM radio stations.
 I purchased it on Amazon.
 When I received it I found I could get about 17 AM stations in my car during the daytime, while my car radio got a lot more, close to 30.
 
I located an internet site called radio-locator.com that is excellent as it gives an exact amount of the number,identity and location of radio stations a user can expect to find and receive a signal from in their location.
 I later used my Sony at night in an apartment off the ground floor and received more signals than when in my car.
I am pretty happy with the radio.
 I don't know how many people realize it, but AM radios can also be used as crude radio direction finders, or RDF.

 When you are receiving a good signal with your AM station, rotate the radio until the radio signal decreases to its minimum. At this direction, the radio antenna will be aligned with the radio transmission tower and either be pointed directly at it or 180 degrees opposite. Obtain the bearings of many stations and you can triangulate and obtain an approximate position of your location on a chart that has the locations of the radio towers on it.

 I made a simple and crude  RDF as shown in this video by printing out a 360 degree compass rose  and aligned it with magnetic North. I then placed a small piece of wood on the center of the compass rose to use as a pointer and set my  radio on top. When I  rotate the radio I can see where I am getting the weakest signal, which will give me the direction or compass bearing the radio station is from me. If I get several other radio station transmission tower bearings I can then use them to find out where my location is on a map.

 If you use radio-locator.com, you can locate all the radio stations in your area and print out a chart to use that will allow you to use your AM radio as a simple but crude RDF.
 If you have never made a google map before, I made short video showing how. here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOH9rrmSOdA&list=UUpb14PLslOJg2AhOceHi4Qw&index=55

Making a crude RDF  is just for fun, no one needs an RDF anymore with GPS navigation, but if we ever lose the GPS satellites it will be good to know this trick allowing us to use AM radio for navigation.

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