Question about antenna tuners

[YoMoma]

I`ve decided to purchase a Grundig Satelitt 750. And I`m looking into antenna possibilities. Currently I have a leftover small window sill dipole with a BNC connecter. Not even sure the Grundig has an input for this.
This upcoming spring I would like to install something more for this radio. I live In a cold weather climate so I will wait for warmer weather to install any sort of antenna.
My yard is very small which will challenge me to devise a antenna solution for this radio. I have considered running an antenna of sorts under my eave of the house. Going in one direction that would only give me about 20 feet.
I understand this is way too short, but could I feasibly use an antenna this short with an antenna tuner to work in the shortwave bands?
Obviously I haven't ever operated an antenna tuner before.
And if this setup would possibly work, what would be a good choice for a decent but not expensive tuner?

 

[Blackswan73]

A tuner will help to a point. In fact, some of the tuner designs in the older ARRL handbooks, could match a set of bed springs to your radio. But a tuner is not a substitute for a good, or even fair antenna. If you are cramped for space, and have access to an attic, or even along the ceiling of a room , Google a "Slinky" dipole. Just a couple of $3 Slinkys, a insulator, (even cardboard), and some RG 58 coax. With a Pl259 connector, and you are in business. Metal Slinkys by the way, not the plastic ones. Another easy to make antenna for cramped spaces, is a Broomstick antenna.

 

[ka3jjz]

Small yards can be a challenge, but there are some solutions. Consider using the entire perimeter of the yard - what would that get you in terms of total area?

One possibility here is a loop - no, not the Wellbrook or Pixel (although they would work well, they're very expensive). If you had some way of looping a wire around the perimeter of your yard, feed that into a 9:1 transformer with coax, it would be a half way decent receive antenna. It's a little low to the ground but with a small yard, you have to make some compromises.

The famous Broomstick is another idea, however, being basically vertical, it's going to be more sensitive to noise sources in and around the home. And we haven't talked about the infamous HOAs yet...

Much as I don't like active antennas - many are way too prone to amplifying noise as much as the signal you want to hear, the North Country active might also be a way to go here. It's a bit expensive, but it might be worth considering. One advantage is that it could be mounted away from your home to get it away from noise sources - and could be moved around easily until you find that 'quiet spot'

Mike

 

[YoMoma]

Thanks for the ideas guys. Probably wont put up an antenna inside. The room im working out of is no bigger than 12' x 15'. And looking at slinky antennas, they all seem to be way longer than what I have room for.
The most obvious setup so far for me would be to run something along the eave of my house. I am working out of a 2nd floor room. All I need to do is to open my window and I am out on my porch roof within reach of my 2nd story roof eave.
If I needed a little more room I could go around another side of my house`s eave but the antenna would be situated in a 90 degree pattern. would this be an uneffecient setup?

 

[Blackswan73]

A Slinky dipole will fit in a 15' space. It just has to be stretched far enough to separate the coils. An outside antenna is always better than an indoor one. Outdoor limited space antennas include, loop, rhombic, slopers, and inverted V dipoles.

 

[ka3jjz]

A rhombic is most assuredly not a limited space antenna (heh, don't I wish....). But the others are possibilities. For example, Alpha Delta makes a very nice shortened sloper for SWL work. It's about 40 foot long, but taking into account the highest point, and the angle, it might just fit.

Mike

 

[cmdrwill]

If you do use an antenna tuner, it would have to be a manual tuning one. You are only receiving.

 

[SCPD]

Heck for the price of the 750 why not just buy a real SW receiver! Then you could put up a coat hangar and get better reception...

 

[majoco]

A tuner still won't make a poor antenna into a good one - the more metal up in the air the better - and you can't feed a tuner with coax - only open wire or balanced twin feeder. Once you have changed the impedance of the antenna to match the coaxial cable, all that a tuner can do is work like a preselector. Get a real radio with a proper 50ohm input to a bank of octave filters - then you can homebrew or buy a broadband plus 'un-un' antenna (google for T2FD) to feed the 50ohm coax to the radio - a proper job.

 

[ka3jjz]

Heck for the price of the 750 why not just buy a real SW receiver! Then you could put up a coat hangar and get better reception...

Please let's not muddy the discussion (even though I happen to agree). On topicre tuners and the like...Mike

 

[Boombox]

Thanks for the ideas guys. Probably wont put up an antenna inside. The room im working out of is no bigger than 12' x 15'. And looking at slinky antennas, they all seem to be way longer than what I have room for.
The most obvious setup so far for me would be to run something along the eave of my house. I am working out of a 2nd floor room. All I need to do is to open my window and I am out on my porch roof within reach of my 2nd story roof eave.
If I needed a little more room I could go around another side of my house`s eave but the antenna would be situated in a 90 degree pattern. would this be an uneffecient setup?

The 90 degree set up wouldn't necessarily be inefficient. It will pull in more signals if it's longer than your 20 ft. eave antenna. The only difference would be directivity, but at anything under 100-150 ft. you're not going to have much directivity off your antenna at most SW frequencies.

 

[Blackswan73]

An antenna tuner for receive does work similar to a preselector. Since an antenna is only resonant for a certain range of frequencies, and an average DX er listens to a wide range of frequencies, an antenna tuner will help make the antenna work better on the frequency you want to hear. Even with the commercial multiband antennas, they can't cover every frequency you want to hear. Many SWLs use simple tuners, or matchboxes, to help dig out the "tough" ones. I personally use an old Lake tuner, that was sold years ago in the UK. There are also good plans available to build a good tuner for SWL use. Google make antenna tuner, and you will find them. Another good one is a MFJ 956. These are useful for getting a station out of the mud. I used to use the Lake tuner coupled with a 40m dipole, to dig out the low powered pirates on 6925. To use a tuner takes a little skill. First you tune your received to the area of the band you are interested in. Then slowly turn the knobs of the tuner to get the loudest background noise. At the point of loudest background noise level, your antenna will be most sensitive to the band segment you want to hear. After tuning in the station you want to hear on your receiver, you can touch up slightly your tuner for maximum signal strength. I have been a SWL for more years than most of you all have been alive. I started out with about 20 wraps of magnet wire around a 18" or so square cardboard box, fed to an alligator clip attached to the antenna of a three band Elgin radio. With this crude setup I was able to log more than forty countries in six months. A couple of years later, I snagged a Heathkit receiver, and with the same simple loop antenna, logged ninety countries. No that was in the days when the SWBC bands were thick with stations, but it gives you an idea what can be done.

 

[Blackswan73]

http://forums.radioreference.com/hf-mw-lw-general-discussion/308273-looking-back-my-life-swl.html

 

[Boombox]

In my own case, a simple tuner reduced spurious images on my DX160, which is a single conversion receiver and prone to some overload on SW.