RS 102" CB whip antenna for Shortwave?

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n8emr

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Its a hunk of metal in the air it will work. not great but will work.
 

jhooten

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The Navy did a study of recieving antennas. They determined you could pick up a useable signal on a 9 foot antenna as low a 2 megahertz.

As emr said it will work but not all that great.
 

HF

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102"

Hello good buddy...got a sloppy copy on me ?

I use a R75 + a 102" whip w/ a radial wire 102" long. The mirror mount is bolted to a 20 foot mast ( had to duct tape the mast where the mirror mount bolted onto), so I basically have a vertical dipole. It works excellently on 26-28 MHz of course, 14 MHz takes 2nd prize. But all bands seem to be coming in good.

When a thunderstorm comes my way, I disconnect the antenna and use just a vertical 48 inch wire (seems to work almost as well inside for 26-28 as the 102" 20 feet up does outside !?! Just some thoughts.

take care.
Jason
Triple 6 Ontario Canada
 

walterb

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Hello good buddy...got a sloppy copy on me ?

I use a R75 + a 102" whip w/ a radial wire 102" long. The mirror mount is bolted to a 20 foot mast ( had to duct tape the mast where the mirror mount bolted onto), so I basically have a vertical dipole. It works excellently on 26-28 MHz of course, 14 MHz takes 2nd prize. But all bands seem to be coming in good.

When a thunderstorm comes my way, I disconnect the antenna and use just a vertical 48 inch wire (seems to work almost as well inside for 26-28 as the 102" 20 feet up does outside !?! Just some thoughts.

take care.
Jason
Triple 6 Ontario Canada

that was what I was thinking when I hooked my SW receiver to it. I know very little about antennas, but It didn't seem like their was anything magical about a 10 meter ham antenna vs. this 102 inch wire whip. I was able to pick up New Zealand and Kiev with it in June with all the thunderstorms between here and there in the daytime. I was thinking about mounting / welding some radials on the mirror base plate, but since it grounds out to the mast, perhaps they aren't nessessary? I wanted to get it set before I put it on my roof. right now its mounted to a 36 inch steel pipe pounded into the ground. I checked a few of the HF Beacon listening posts around on the web and this antenna doesn't seem to be doing any worse than some of those that are configured for 20 meter and 10 meter. (at least now when propagation isn't the best)

thanks
 

ridgescan

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It's been my experience that a shortwave radio is perfectly happy with pretty much any antenna as long as it's ouside and has a decent ground. I have two SW's in op-one runs off a centerload "trucker type" CB whip. The other which works quite well is a 900 MHZ "christmas tree" yagi poined straight up to the sky (a little trial and error discovery)<<I'd LOVE to hear what some of you technical wizards say about that one:D
 

af5rn

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Buddy of mine uses a 102 inch steel whip mounted on his SUV bumper as a SW antenna, and gets surprisingly satisfactory results. Of course, he has an automatic antenna tuner installed inline, which makes a significant difference. Not sure I'd be comfortable trying to transmit SW on a 27mhz antenna without an antenna tuner. I'd like to try it with a base loaded whip, myself. Hole mounted on a large vehicle roof, I'm betting I could do as well as I want to.
 

walterb

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Buddy of mine uses a 102 inch steel whip mounted on his SUV bumper as a SW antenna, and gets surprisingly satisfactory results. Of course, he has an automatic antenna tuner installed inline, which makes a significant difference. Not sure I'd be comfortable trying to transmit SW on a 27mhz antenna without an antenna tuner. I'd like to try it with a base loaded whip, myself. Hole mounted on a large vehicle roof, I'm betting I could do as well as I want to.

Does an antenna tuner help if you are only receiving?
 

ridgescan

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Buddy of mine uses a 102 inch steel whip mounted on his SUV bumper as a SW antenna, and gets surprisingly satisfactory results. Of course, he has an automatic antenna tuner installed inline, which makes a significant difference. Not sure I'd be comfortable trying to transmit SW on a 27mhz antenna without an antenna tuner. I'd like to try it with a base loaded whip, myself. Hole mounted on a large vehicle roof, I'm betting I could do as well as I want to.
When you say SW antenna do you mean "ham" or does he actually SW-DX from his mobile?
 

af5rn

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Does an antenna tuner help if you are only receiving?
Yes, to some extent. But it is mostly used for matching the impedance of a broadband antenna to a transmitter to optimise signal and power transmission. Not really sure how much of a difference it makes simply for receiving, as I have no experience with that. And I believe it is a different kind of antenna tuner unit that is utilised strictly for receivers, as they would have to be manual. The auto tuner tunes only when you press the transmit button, improving performance for both transmission and reception, but obviously would do nothing if you didn't transmit.

When you say SW antenna do you mean "ham" or does he actually SW-DX from his mobile?
It's a CB antenna hooked up to an HF Ham transceiver. He transmits and receives HF through it.
 
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andrewccm

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I need to just get my antenna outside somehow.. After my experiment tonight taking my E1 outside with AN-LP1, I am convinced that this is the only approach that is going to work for me... Inside anywhere in my house is like listening to white noise for all but the strongest signals.

Now I just have to figure out how to neatly run something out to the backyard from my upstairs and that the HOA will not see... hrmm... LOL
 

rcvmo

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The Navy did a study of recieving antennas. They determined you could pick up a useable signal on a 9 foot antenna as low a 2 megahertz.

This claim is absolutley correct.

Many moons ago when DPD, DFD had the old Ded reckoning AVL, we used a VHF whip and an antenna tuner to recieve the 1.7 MHz beacon off Belle isle.,
Many moons means not that long ago. Late 90's is when the system was decomissioned. In the mid 80's I could hear the beacon all the way into the UP!!
rcvmo
 

k9rzz

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I'll use my mobile whips for SWBC Dxing and they work well. For 3485khz, my 20 meter hamstick works better than my 75m hamstick (no tuner). You'll hear plenty of HF stuff with that CB whip if the receiver is relatively sensitive (what radio do you use??).
 

walterb

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I'll use my mobile whips for SWBC Dxing and they work well. For 3485khz, my 20 meter hamstick works better than my 75m hamstick (no tuner). You'll hear plenty of HF stuff with that CB whip if the receiver is relatively sensitive (what radio do you use??).

I boughta used Radio Shack DX394. Its not bad for a $120 base receiver.
 

Einstein22

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Have you tried just streching out a long wire to the shortwave radio.. Maybe even attaching the long wire to a steel fence.. You would be surprised by the difference, versus a ham stick or 102" whip.
 

walterb

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Have you tried just streching out a long wire to the shortwave radio.. Maybe even attaching the long wire to a steel fence.. You would be surprised by the difference, versus a ham stick or 102" whip.

I've got a chain link fence. So attaching a wire to it will work?
 
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