Budget SW antenna for Tecsun PL-660

[ESM]

Hi, I just ordered a PL-660. I'm coming from a DX-390 with a sangean wire spool antenna.

I like the Wellbrook active loops, but they''re probably a little out of my price range right now. Are there any good shortwave antennas worth getting for under $100 that will be a step up from the spool of wire antenna I'm currently using ? I'm in a high rise apartment with a balcony. So I can't put up anything too big. Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[SCPD]

This is a little higher than your budget, but it may work fine in an apartment -- presuming you have a small balcony.

MFJ-1024, mfj1024 Active Antenna

Otherwise, there is something like this...

MFJ-1020C, mfj1020 Active Shortwave Antenna

You could put it near a window and hope for the best.

Regardless of which way you go, I would get the radio first and make sure you don't have any serious RFI in the apartment. An active antenna will just amplify any RFI...

PS. You will have to fashion your own cable to the radio. It looks like a typical 1/8" jack.

 

[w2xq]

Wirelessly posted (Moto Droid Bionic: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 4.0.4; en-us; DROID BIONIC Build/6.7.2-223_DBN_M4-23) AppleWebKit/534.30 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/534.30)

.Before you spend any significant money, try a 20-30 ft length of wire. Put a plug or alligator clip on one end. General rule of thumb: many portables suffer overload from too many signals swamping the front end. Been there, done that, trust me. HTH.

 

[gpsblake]

I use a 60 feet random wire with an alligator clip. I've never once overloaded by 660 with too much antenna but I don't live in a big metro area either. Sometimes I have to turn the gain down to local when listening to Cuba or the American domestics. (My Grundig G5 overloads and the CCrane-SW overloads badly).

 

[ESM]

So I've been enjoying the radio, the supplied wire spool antenna is working pretty good for HF. I do have loads of RFI but luckily contained to a couple different 300-400 KHz swaths. That small RFJ antenna is interesting. The balcony has an iron railing. On some sw stations, I can improve the s/n by resting the whip horizontally on the guard rail. Don't know what the ideal solution is. I saw an HF whip that could be mounted with a supplied vice grip like attachment. It was called an apartment antenna. That might work great for dx, although I could probably only put it up at night. I originally was interested in a transceiver, although I don't have a license yet, but the local HRO store employee told me I could cause RFI on my neighbor's TVs, if I operated a station in a high rise like that. I wonder if I could get away with a KX3.

Slightly OT, but the FM reception isn't quite as good as I expected, mainly because I frequently can hear static while in stereo mode on some frequencies.. But that is probably interference and not the pl660's fault.

 

[ka3jjz]

Be very aware of static discharge, especially when clipping wire to the whip antenna. A static zap will almost certainly fry the amp at or near the bottom of the whip, rendering the radio deaf to one degree or another.

It's somewhat better to connect to the ext antenna jack if it has one, but even here, a little protection against static shock is advisable. Some folks use a couple of diodes, so that if a zap does get applied, all you've lost is a couple of cheap diodes, and not the whole radio.

Mike

 

[LtDoc]

Diodes in an antenna? I have to admit that they would make a fair attenuator, but not a very good protection for a 'surge'. Those 'surges' come in two polarities you know.
- Paul

 

[ka3jjz]

In point of fact, the venerable ICF2010 had exactly this issue with a FET in the amp that kept blowing due to static discharges. Their solution (in later models) was to solder a diode in line with the amp (I think) to keep this from happening.

There's a small schematic about 2/3 of the way down this page, with a couple of back to back diodes and a pot to reduce the chances of overload and static discharges getting into the radio - look for the 'external antenna accessory' section of...

WD8DAS Spitfire Page

This little schematic is a great newcomer project who wants to protect their portable from a similar mishap.

But little portables weren't the only ones to be concerned with this. The desktop receiver from JRC known as the NRD-515 had this type of setup as well - but there were times that given enough RF in the area, the diodes could actually start to rectify.;That's why the late Perry Ferrell of Gilfer removed them for his customers and replaced it with something else (I don't remember precisely what it was...)

It's cheap insurance, for sure. I'd much rather replace a couple of blown diodes in a little box I built myself rather than sending the radio in for repair...Mike

 

[booplover]

Best SWL Antenna

Hi, I have a PL 660, and other SW radios. I've experimented with different types of antennas and the best one for all of my radios is a Par Electronics EF-SWL. I got mine from Universal Radio for $84. It's a 45 ft long wire (thin) with it's own balun. I use a 50 ohm coax to run it to the bedroom and have a 3.5mm adapter for the ext antenna jack on the PL 660 adaptor. The wire fits nicely along the hallway/ceiling for 45ft. I hear radio stations from China, Russia, Romania, Cuba and Australia, clearly. Hope this helps.

 

[E-Man]

Here are some more considerations:

Amazon.com: Kaito Amplified Active Loop AM & Shortwave Antenna, KA33: Electronics

Degen de 31MS Indoor MW SW Receiver Active Loop Antenna | eBay

I think the Kaito and the Degen may be the same antenna.

Sony An LP1 Portable Active Antenna | eBay

Passport to World Band Radio gave favorable reviews for both loops

 

[SCPD]

Check out the Tecsun PL 660 Yahoo Group, you will have to join, but loads of info on this radio including antennas and more, great info, free to join, you will be impressed.

 

[SCPD]

Ka3jiz brings up a very important issue using the whip with a random or longwire with the issue of static discharge, this radio according to schematics has protection on the whip and not the external antenna jack, I am using a 20 foot random attached to the whip with good results. Why the external doesn't have protection is beyond me, if you are going to use the external, do some research on protection as Ka3jiz recommended.

 

[WaveyDipole]

Check out the Tecsun PL 660 Yahoo Group, you will have to join...

Funnily enough I tried to do that the other day and got refused. No explanation given! Never had this before.

The PL660 is supposed to come with a wire antenna. I got my PL660 secondhand and it came with a TG34 SW/MW active loop antenna, but I'm not sure whether this is supplied as standard or whether the seller upgraded at some point. I have tried it out by suspending it on the curtain pole near a window and plugging in via the antenna jack. I found that it does improve reception a bit on short wave. It seems to do nothing for medium wave (with switch on antenna set to the appropriate band) and I tried both the antenna jack and the induction coupler.

I also have a 10m (30ft) random wire antenna that I use with my DX394. This also works OK for the PL660 when connected to the telecopic whip, but I fond when using this that it is best to have the attenuator switch set to Local.

I'm thinking of building an ATU but thanks to ka3jjz I will also now consider the issue of protecting the antenna input.

 

[fleef]

Pass on the Degen/Kaito KA33 amp ant

I'd pass totally on the amplified KA33 antenna. They are almost useless. I tested one and found it worse than using plain old wire, as it amplified a lot of noise and the teeny tiny rolling dial on it was made for someone with miniature fingers.

There is a whip good for apartments that is around 100., well 130. last I checked and that's the APEX 303WA2. They are easy to put together, very well constructed and look quite handsome yet very unobtrusive. Although they are about 6' long they are almost invisible with the nice, thin, whip. I would call it a bit overkill for your little portable, though. I would stick with plain old "string": a length of wire anywhere from 20' to 60' or so.

 

[WaveyDipole]

I would agree with fleef, that an active antenna does tend to amplify noise as well. The 34 does this too and yes, the tiny tuning wheel on this is also fiddly. I must admit, I did wonder why the seller chose to keep the spool of wire...

 

[SCPD]

WaveyDipole, the Pl660 group is merging with the Pl600 group to form one group. There has been difficulty signing in and some have posted of this issue, should be cleared up soon, try the PL600 and see what happens.