Please recommend an antenna for Grundig Satellit 750

[dnlbrrg]

It might help if I tell you first what my interests are and what I have.

My interests in shortwave are broad. I like to listen to broadcasts and sometimes try to pick up broadcasts that aren't necessarily aimed to my area.

I like to scan for utilities; I've had some luck with military comms and some marine comms.

One of my biggest interests is pirates, but I'm not always lucky in this department. Occasionally I pick up Radio Wolverine with a strong signal and rarely Ronin.

I have a Grundig Satellit 750. Nothing fancy in terms of the Antenna, I just strung about 100 feet of wire outside and fed it to the radio into the high impedance socket/random wire input on the side.

Not a fancy set up but keeps me entertained. I thought about getting a better radio but it was suggested that I try a better antenna first.

I saw that this antenna Palstar AA30 Active Antenna
has an input for a random wire. I thought maybe I can hook up the wire outside to this antenna and use it as a tunner... will that yield better results? am I better of with a different antenna? What's your suggestion?

Keep in mind the following: I won't get on top of my roof, I don't get along very well with heights.

 

[kilokat7]

It might help if I tell you first what my interests are and what I have.
I saw that this antenna Palstar AA30 Active Antenna
has an input for a random wire. I thought maybe I can hook up the wire outside to this antenna and use it as a tunner... will that yield better results? am I better of with a different antenna? What's your suggestion?

I can't comment on AA30 but I do have a Quantum QX Loop. It also has an input for a random wire antenna. FWIW, with the Quantum loop, I found no advantage to using it with my longwire. It doesn't turn the device into a true antenna tuner.

Before getting my SDR, I was using my old Realistic DX-440 portable with 500 feet of wire laying on the ground in a straight line (a BOG antenna) with decent results up to about 10 MHz. To control any overloading issues, I used an antenna tuner (I used what I had laying around - the MFJ-949E) connected between the receiver and antenna.

Today I'm using two BOG antennas connected to a Quantum phaser with nice results feeding my SDR. The phaser allows me to null out man-made noise on shortwave and allows me to null out pest stations on the AM band in order to hear other stations on the same channel.

If you don't want to mess around with wires, then I would suggest one of the magnetic loops like the Wellbrook or Pixel Pro. These have been discussed in great detail in the HF antenna forum. Another member in your "wanting to upgrade" thread already mentioned using a Wellbrook with his 750 with excellent results.

I'm afraid that you would outgrow the AA30 unit. I don't think the same can be said for one of the loops that I mentioned above.

 

[ka3jjz]

Yes that would be one, albeit expensive, solution. A much cheaper solution would be to make a 2nd antenna- perhaps one that runs in the opposite direction from what you have now. For example, if your current 100 foot random wire runs basically N-S, can you put something up that runs E-W? Sometimes propagation can be flaky - your target signal might not come in well on the N-S antenna, but comes in better on the E-W one. I would also consider feeding the antenna(s) with a 9:1 transformer and coax to make the antennas a bit more noise resistant.

Another possibility here (you didn't say much about how much space you have to work with) is to put up a nice inverted V, which would have more vertical characteristics (at least on some bands...).

Our HF Antennas wiki has a lot of possibilities. Look at the homebrew as well as the indexed links sections. I would certainly consider some of these over the active antenna - you really don't need one if you have the space to put something up that will end up being better in the long run, frankly.

As to getting the antenna up high, make friends with some hams, maybe have a friend who trims trees - whatever - because getting the antenna up and away from noise sources is critical for success. Learn how to solder properly - it's a skill you will use again and again, particularly if you decide to advance yourself.

Your situation leaves us cave dwellers green with envy :.>> HTH...Mike

 

[Turbo68]

Wellbrook-ALA1530AL-1 Active Loop and if you upgrade to another radio u dont need to spend money buying another antenna doesnt need to be mounted high 6-10 feet..

Regards Lino..