Hey guys,
I've got a problem on my hands and I thought some of you might have great knowledge about this. I have a Panasonic SX-3400 Stereo Receiver that works great on AM, Phono, and Aux channels but the FM channel only produces static/silence.
Does anyone know what might be broken on this receiver? I don't have an external antenna but I always thought all that was internal.
Any ideas would be great!
Thanks for taking the time to consider this!
- Nolen
Hi Nolen.
If you're lucky all you need is an FM antenna.
I don't know that particular receiver, but it's generally standard that receivers have provision on the rear for attaching a dipole, telescoping antenna, or just a piece of wire. Look for screw terminals or an F connector or both, attach a 5-foot wire to one screw terminal and you might hear a station.
Okay so it probably doesn't have some sort of internal FM antenna? It needs an antenna of some sort to be attached?
I do see 4 screws in back. Three for FM (balanced/unbalanced) and one for AM, but AM already works and neither have an antenna attached to said screws. There is also something called GND
Does the stereo have an EXT Ant jack for FM? If so does it have a jack like the antenna jack or cable jack on the back of your TV or cable box? If it has the same type jack as on a cable box or back of a TV that just screws in called an F connector or 75 ohm connector you can use a FM antenna that looks like rabbit ears. Some FM antennas are just a wire T with an F connector on the bottom. In any case you'll need some sort of antenna connected to the higher end stereo receivers as they don't have a built in FM antenna. Hope this helps.
Nolen on the unbalanced antenna screw attach a wire from 5 to 7-feet in length.
Ignore the balanced FM screws unless you have a dipole type antenna.
Ignore the GND (ground).
There is probably a built-in loopstick antenna for AM, with an option to attach an external long-wire for distance reception.
TheLegacy's cable sytem connection would be perfect if you have the right kind of connector jack on the tuner.
Okay, I think yall are right and I need to get an antenna. what is the name of the type of connection that has two wires at the end with the U looking tips to the wires.
I call them forks, but they are not needed for your radio.
Just take any old length of wire, strip some of the insulation off the end and stick it where the contacts are then tighten down.
Speaker wire works quite well as an FM antenna.
An FM dipiole. It is made of two pieces of twin lead 300 Ohm ribbon (flat) wire. One is the riser for virticle and the other is horizontal, it creates a bi-polar antenna system in the shape of a "T". The wire lugs attach to the screws on your stereo system's back panel and the "T" can be tacked to your wall behind the stereo system using the tabs found in the middle and at the end of each wire.
You can find those on line.
Google "Indoor 300 ohm FM dipole antenna"
An example: http://www.amazon.com/Parts-Express-FM-Dipole-Antenna/dp/B000M9EREE
Some packages comes with both the AM and FM antenna included.
Bruce.
An closer "some what" image of the terminals on the Panasonic.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzRiT8fHwT9NQWRJUndRVElZdkU/view?usp=sharing
So I hooked up a pair of old Rabbit Ear antennas off of an old TV from the late 90's. It seems to be working alright. Not the most clear FM signal but I can tune into stations on the FM band now!
Great, Nolen!
You're off to a start and can improve it as you go.
One of those dipole antennas as linked above might really bring it alive.