Long Wire or Random Wire for CP-34 (AN/PRC-514)

[fonestar]

Hello,

I found a neat Marconi CP-34 (AN/PRC-514) in a pawn shop so I bought it and it appears to be working. I think these radios were used by the Canadian Armed Forces in the 1980s.

I would like to get it restored, setup and on the air, maybe mount it on a "ruck sack" and take it portable.

What could I use for an antenna? It has a BNC connector on the face of the radio. 4.441 Mhz is already in this radio which is what the trappers and hunters use up here. I understand this radio already has a tuner built in for random wires.

Could I just attach a random wire to a male BNC connector? What guage wire would you recommend and what length? I would like to keep it as deathly simple as possible with no baluns or insulators or anything else.

 

[prcguy]

Since the radio has a built in antenna tuner you could get away with tossing about 50ft of random wire in a tree but you should also use a couple of counterpoise wires running opposite directions on the ground or slightly elevated over bushes, etc. The counterpoise wires could be shorter to some extent but something in the 25 to 50ft length should work fine. The radio is very low power and any wire will work like #24 through #12.

If you end up operating on a specific frequency you can make a simple resonant dipole and hang it in the trees 10 to 30ft up and that will saturate an area a couple miles around on the 4-5MHz bands during the evenings and mornings.
prcguy

Hello,

I found a neat Marconi CP-34 (AN/PRC-514) in a pawn shop so I bought it and it appears to be working. I think these radios were used by the Canadian Armed Forces in the 1980s.

I would like to get it restored, setup and on the air, maybe mount it on a "ruck sack" and take it portable.

What could I use for an antenna? It has a BNC connector on the face of the radio. 4.441 Mhz is already in this radio which is what the trappers and hunters use up here. I understand this radio already has a tuner built in for random wires.

Could I just attach a random wire to a male BNC connector? What guage wire would you recommend and what length? I would like to keep it as deathly simple as possible with no baluns or insulators or anything else.

 

[fonestar]

Thanks for the come back prcguy... for the counterpoise... just the same guage wire with a loop to go around the BNC connector?

 

[prcguy]

Basically yes. Its good to have two or more of them going in different directions and its more efficient if they are up off the ground. Several short ones are usually better than one or two long ones. The reason for two or more is if you only have one, it and the main antenna wire make a dipole with one radiating element laying on the ground. Not so good.

With two or more radials of the same length going opposite directions you have sort of a ground plane and the radials will not radiate much, leaving only the main antenna wire to radiate.
prcguy

Thanks for the come back prcguy... for the counterpoise... just the same guage wire with a loop to go around the BNC connector?