antenna placement?|

[petercli1]

Hi,

I recently bought a Tecsun PL880 and i have trouble receiving anything except 5000 which just barely comes in :-(

I have a Kaito T-1 Radio antenna plugged into the SW external jack.

I live in a forested area near Seattle,WA. in a low area.


Should I string up the antenna to a tree ? Will the rain destroy the antenna ? Should I maximize horizontal or vertical ?

Thanks alot, Peter

 

[madrabbitt]

Pretty sure its designed as an indoor only antenna.

A LOT of shortwave fans use insulated wire in their attic or attached around the perimeter of the room that their receiver is in.

You may want to consider asking a mod to move this to the shortwave section, or head over there and read up on other people's setups. Im sure there is a LOT of experienced people who can help.

 

[petercli1]

placing a antenna in the attic would keep it protected from the weather.

What about getting interference from house electronics ?

Any links to a guide to build this thing ?
Thanks, Peter

 

[madrabbitt]

This may be way too much information for your needs, but this is what i found:

Build a Multiband Shortwave Antenna - Simple Shortwave Antennas for Shortwave Radios!

I really dont have much experience with receiving in that spectrum.

I did in the past use copper wire cut in a specific length to receive VHF at an old apartment where outdoor antennas were prohibited, and was pretty impressed with its functionality.

 

[wyomingmedic]

There is certainly a risk of electronic interference from items in an attic, but at such low frequencies there is little difference in a wavelength from an attic to a back yard, so it won't make too much difference.

Not knowing your level of radio experience, please forgive what I am about to say if you already know it. If not, hopefully you can build on the info.

When listening to frequencies down around the AM broadcast band and just above, you are at the whim of propagation due to everything from time of day, season, and period of the 11 year solar cycle. Those low frequencies are many times absorbed by ionized layers of the ionosphere during the day, where they would be reflective at night.

BUT, during the day is when you will hear distant SW stations around the 13 and 15mhz bands.

Tailoring your listening frequencies to time of day will greatly improve your chances of hearing stuff.

Also, though the external wire antenna is an improvement over the whip, it is still very short for the low frequencies we are talking. Remember that at 1.6mhz (AM broadcast in the U.S.), the wavelength is nearly 200 meters long. At only 23 feet the Kaito is not very efficient. BUT, at around 11mhz the Kaito will be fairly efficient.

If you do want to listen to the late night low frequency stations, start experimenting with wire. LOTS OF WIRE!!!

 

[petercli1]

Hello Wyoming,

I visited Cheyenne a few months ago -really cool place ! Had a steak at the Steamboat Steakhouse, and visited a pool hall nearby.

I am a complete beginner with SW.

This link shows the different bands : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortwave_bands - the international bands are around 10-100 meters . From the living room, I picked up 9579 just barely, but nothing else.

Is Seattle to far away ? or do I need a bigger antenna ?
Thanks, Peter

 

[wyomingmedic]

Hello Wyoming,

I visited Cheyenne a few months ago -really cool place ! Had a steak at the Steamboat Steakhouse, and visited a pool hall nearby.

I am a complete beginner with SW.

Is Seattle to far away ? or do I need a bigger antenna ?
Thanks, Peter

The Steamboat is a decent place to eat. I live over in Laramie currently, but was born in Wyoming and have lived all over the place. Nice state for the most part.

As a bit of a primer for propagation understanding, here is one of my favorite resources.

Near-Real-Time MUF Map

It is a real time MUF (Maximum Usable Frequency) map. It shows the highest frequency capable of traveling from any one point on Earth to any other point. At the time of my posting you can see a path open to Australia from the northern U.S. at around 14 mhz. And over into Europe from 18-26 mhz. This is over a daylight path.

If you look over areas of nightfall, you can see that the MUF is around 9mhz or even lower. This is the symptom you are trying to receive through.

As for Seattle being too far away, you can't really talk about "too far away" on shortwave HF type bands. Unlike VHF/UHF, the HF bands are influenced by FAR more than topography and antenna height/gain. Typical FM broadcast or even AM broadcast are probably not going to be easily received by you. During the day, AM from Seattle may travel via groundwave style propagation to you, but at night it will most likely disappear in a cacophony of noise from all of the other broadcast stations on the same frequency.

If you had something to listen to at 3 to 8mhz, you would most likely be able to receive it via something called NVIS propagation, during the daylight hours.