help with wire antenna

[joohn6]

Hello everyone

I have been listening to shortwave for about 6 months now, and I love it. I had the Grundig G8, the upgraded to the Grundig 750. I am having trouble hooking up the wire antenna. I don't have a cold water pipe I can connect too or a radiator. I live in a the suburbs/rural area. (There are a couple on neighborhoods around me and 2 schools. I live on 4 acres with tree everywhere.
When I connect the wire to the grundig on the live (red) side I usally just lay the ground wire on the ground, but this not help with getting better signals. The live wire is about 30 feet by a window and the ground is about 30 feet. Do I just need a longer wire? I have done searching online and have not found much. If there is a good link please post.
Thanks

 

[a29zuk]

Pound a ground rod or copper pipe(at least 4') into the ground just outside of your structure where your live(antenna) wire exits the structure. Hook the ground wire to that. Get the antenna wire up 10' to 30' off of the ground and run it out to one of your trees. Length wise 30' should be long enough to get a good signal but a longer wire wouldn't hurt unless you live near a AM broadcast station.

Welcome to the website,

Jim

 

[ridgescan]

Make a "dipole" antenna. You can make one that's not too long that it would overload your radio.
Get some rg59 or lmr240 coax, run it from your radio room to a spot outside where you can hang 40' of horizontal wire. Get 45' of #14 solid or stranded copper wire at Home Depot (extra 5' is for errors)..at the outside end, solder a 20' wire to the center lead of the coax, then solder the other 20' wire to the outer shield of the coax. Then seal those connections well with coax seal, or good flexible electrical tape, taking care to completely cover the exposed connections from any invasion of moisture. Then stretch out the result horizontally, high up as you can, between two trees or whatever, making a 40' dipole. No ground is needed as your 20' wire to the shielding is a "counterpoise" to the 20' on the center conductor.
Then connect your center conductor inside at radio to the antenna port and the shield to the ground port of your radio (not familiar with your radio's antenna points). Should be a nice antenna.

 

[ka3jjz]

Keep in mind that listening on shortwave (HF) is not like scanning. It's very dependent on conditions on the sun, as well as your local time of day. Listen above 10 Mhz during the day, below that at night. It would be helpful to know in what county/state you live in - what you can receive will vary drastically between the East and West coasts

We have several wiki articles with literally tons of information (anything blue is a link) - here is our HF gateway...

HF - The RadioReference Wiki

HF Antennas - The RadioReference Wiki

We also have dedicated HF forums, as well as a forum area for receive antennas. Most folks - myself included - would kill for having an area like yours, so there's tons of room for experimentation. Don't be afraid to experiment - you won't damage the radio in any way if you erect something that doesn't work very well.

Mike

 

[joohn6]

Thanks, I live in Columbia SC by the way.

 

[k3cfc]

Hello everyone

I have been listening to shortwave for about 6 months now, and I love it. I had the Grundig G8, the upgraded to the Grundig 750. I am having trouble hooking up the wire antenna. I don't have a cold water pipe I can connect too or a radiator. I live in a the suburbs/rural area. (There are a couple on neighborhoods around me and 2 schools. I live on 4 acres with tree everywhere.
When I connect the wire to the grundig on the live (red) side I usally just lay the ground wire on the ground, but this not help with getting better signals. The live wire is about 30 feet by a window and the ground is about 30 feet. Do I just need a longer wire? I have done searching online and have not found much. If there is a good link please post.
Thanks

If you want to learn about shortwave antennas you tube is the place to go.just type shortwave antennas. type Dave Tadlock for ham antennas i know he has 50 videos. the best thing about you tube is you can download them and put em in your archives.

Have fun and welcome to R.R

 

[joohn6]

I got about 30 feet of solid wire today, I might get more. I also put a iron rod about a foot into the ground, and wrapped a wire around that, it in by the Ac unit, so I hope that wont cause interference. Just having trouble getting the wire high since.
Thanks everyone.

 

[WA0CBW]

You might need to research how to install a ground rod. Ground rods range from 4 to 8 feet and are copper clad steel. A steel rod is not acceptable. An approved clamp should be used to connect the ground wire to the ground rod. Depending on the type of ground you are installing the wire should be a minimum of #8 (insulated if it can come into contact with a person). There are numerous articles available from the National Electrical Code on the proper equipment and methods for installing ground rods and antenna coax grounding (see section 810). Grounding your equipment and antenna surge suppressors can help to reduce the likely hood of equipment damage during a lightning event.
BB

 

[SpectreOZ]

If you want to learn about shortwave antennas you tube is the place to go.just type shortwave antennas. type Dave Tadlock for ham antennas i know he has 50 videos.

Some of ZZ's videos can be quite long (detailed & informative) so grab a beverage and find a comfy chair when you've got some extra time on your hands


I've had great success with a simple random length of heavy gauge stranded wire (solid can be less robust) whilst other's have used twisted strand guy wires (I prefer copper), most if not all receivers work best with a really good ground so getting that sorted (as you have) is a step in the right direction...

It would also be worth your effort to piece together a VHF antenna for the airband seeing as the G750 can cover that as well, a cheap/easy antenna type for that would be a 1/4 wave ground plane antenna (or a flowerpot coaxial antenna).

Happy DX!