Yes, AM broadcast station transmitting antennas are vertical.

But, at those low frequencies, the polarization of the wire you use 
for listening will absolutely not matter at all.

Furthermore, unless you own your very own private ghost town, 
abandoned railroad, or about 200 acres where you can run a very long 
wire or a beverage antenna, the directional orientation of the wire 
you are likely to install will not matter either.

If your house has real aluminum window screens, try using one of those 
for the receiving antenna. Those use to work just fine before 
everything in the house became a noise generator at the AM frequency 
range.

You will probably do better with something like the Select-A-Tenna, or 
whatever C Crane sells these days. Radio Shack also sold a tunable 
Select-A-Tenna knockoff at one time, but I don't know if they still 
do.



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ron Yearns" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2012 4:20 PM
Subject: broadcast am radio antenna


Hello folks,
I recently acquired a a m / f m receiver.  It has a antenna connection 
and a
ground connection.  The ground connection seems to make no difference.
Should the antenna wire be vertically or horizontally polarized?   I 
am
thinking broadcast a m is verticle?
Ron