Antenna Advice

[Brian Vita]

My Sangean HDT-1 receiver arrived Thursday and, after finally putting a 
real antenna on it, the FM sounds great.  I initially tried the indoor 
dipole thing that comes with it and could actually pick up some stations 
but couldn't lock onto any of the GM stations in HD.  Other stations did 
however.

I moved the antenna to my back window and it improved somewhat to the 
point where I could pick up all of the GM stations in HD except Magic 
(more accurately, I was trying to pick up WMJX-2 (smooth jazz, don't ya 
know).  I still couldn't get a lock.

I moved the dipole to the attic and was able to lock onto all of the GM 
stations last night but couldn't get a lock this AM.  I finally went 
down to a Radio Shack (somewhat inappropriate name these days) and 
grabbed the one outdoor VHF/UHF/FM antenna in their inventory and put it 
together in the attic  Aside from the fact that the assembly hardware 
was missing, it went together in about 20 mins and is hysterical.  The 
foolish thing is about 14' long.  Picks up just about everything out there.

After a few hours of listening, I am impressed with the quality.  
Overall the signal quality on the FM is better than XM.  WMJX-2's 
programming is very good also.  I also checked out WROR-2 (all 70's) and 
was impressed.  The other HD-2 channels in the market didn't impress 
me.  I'm not into Classic Hip-Hop, Radio You (whatever the hell that is) 
or all Irish all the time.  How about dumping one of those and replacing 
it with the Fox (or CNN) News audio feed?

As far as the AM side, I hooked up the loop thingy that they ship with 
it and, much to my surprise, I had a clean pickup of WRKO, WBZ and 
several others (with my previous receiver the same type of loop gave me 
all static all the time).  I wasn't able to pick up the HD on any AM 
channel though.

I was considering running a long wire hanging just below the bar joists 
in my building to the receiver and grounding the ground terminal.  Any 
thoughts on a better solution?  I'm not really into buying one of those 
antenna in a box deals.

Your input is greatly appreciated.

For reference, I'm just outside of Peabody Square on Walnut St in a 
cinderblock building that sits somewhat inside of a depression (the 
building, not me).

Brian Vita