FDM-S2 receiver (need Antenna)

[Saint]

I am going to buy a FDM-S2 receiver and will be looking for a antenna for it.

I live in a six story Apartment building, I live on the Fourth floor of the building and I am facing North also my fourth floor balcony is facing North.

I can not put anything on the roof (damn) so that's out of the question.
I do have a Discone antenna sitting out on the balcony for my scanner radio and can use this for shortwave I have had pretty good reception in the shortwave bands before and I may get better reception with the FDM-S2 ???? maybe.

I have tried wire antenna's before inside and out on the balcony but was not to impressed with the results, I found the Discone seemed to work the best.

The balcony is around 10 foot high and around 14 foot long

I could put a vertical antenna up, I do not want to make my own, I would rather buy a good grade antenna from a distributor, I am not into making things anymore.

I am hearing that the FDM-S2 is good picking out weak signal and I know location and your antenna go a long way at what you will hear and also propagation is critical.

Steve

 

[SCPD]

Hi Steve,

I think this would be perfect for your situation:

Active Loop Antenna ALA1530 Indoor N.Am.

If cost is an issue, then you may want to consider this one:

Apex Radio 303WA-2 Shortwave antenna. ApexRadio

This antenna is very popular in Japan for apartment dwellers. The Apex is passive so the gain won't be quite as high as an active loop.

FYI, you can probably paint either of them the color of your building for a stealth option.

 

[Saint]

Antenna's

Hi Steve,

I think this would be perfect for your situation:

Active Loop Antenna ALA1530 Indoor N.Am.

If cost is an issue, then you may want to consider this one:

Apex Radio 303WA-2 Shortwave antenna. ApexRadio

This antenna is very popular in Japan for apartment dwellers. The Apex is passive so the gain won't be quite as high as an active loop.

FYI, you can probably paint either of them the color of your building for a stealth option.

Thanks for the great information, I think if I go with one of these antenna's I will buy the Apex Antenna first and see what kind of reception I get with it, it would fit perfect on my balcony and then when I have some more money buy one of the ALA1530 Loops this way I would have three antenna's to chose from I already have the Discone, I think this would be a good variety of antennas for me. I know there are so many antennas to chose from I will keep my options open but I like both of the antennas you sent me.
Steve

 

[ka3jjz]

Steve I know you said that you didn't want to 'make things anymore', and that you had tried wire antennas and it didn't work well, but you're missing an opportunity here.

Your balcony has 140 square foot of room (10x14). If you were to take clear speaker wire, wrap that around the perimeter of your balcony and feed that via a 9:1 transformer into a coax feed, you would have a very nice HF antenna that no one can easily see.

Another thing to consider is that, as small as that balcony is, putting 3 antennas up there you will almost certainly have some interaction issues. Assuming you do get the Wellbrook, Apex and your discone all on that balcony, on at least some frequencies, the 3 will interact with one another in ways that are very difficult to predict.

Some things to think about here....Mike

 

[Saint]

Information

Steve I know you said that you didn't want to 'make things anymore', and that you had tried wire antennas and it didn't work well, but you're missing an opportunity here.

Your balcony has 140 square foot of room (10x14). If you were to take clear speaker wire, wrap that around the perimeter of your balcony and feed that via a 9:1 transformer into a coax feed, you would have a very nice HF antenna that no one can easily see.

Another thing to consider is that, as small as that balcony is, putting 3 antennas up there you will almost certainly have some interaction issues. Assuming you do get the Wellbrook, Apex and your discone all on that balcony, on at least some frequencies, the 3 will interact with one another in ways that are very difficult to predict.

Some things to think about here....Mike

Thanks Mike for the information, I tried several different speaker wire configurations and did not seem to get good results, I will try this again when I get the FDM-S2 I may get good results with the FDM-S2 and speaker wire, I had a R75 receiver and several different dongles and I am looking forward to seeing how the FDM-S2 works in my location.
Steve

 

[4nradio]

Hi Steve,

I think this would be perfect for your situation:

Active Loop Antenna ALA1530 Indoor N.Am.

"Ditto" on Nickcarr's recommendation. I'm very fond of the Wellbrook loops and have used them for many years. (In fact, I was the first purchaser of Wellbrook items from the US, and convinced Andy to start selling them here :^)

All Wellbrook antennas are excellent at local noise rejection, and their circuitry is low noise and have virtually bulletproof RF overload specifications. As such they are perfect for urban & limited space environments, but I have used them on Trans-Pacific MW DXpeditions to hear numerous overseas stations on the AM broadcast band too.

The 1-meter diameter active loops will work well on Steve's balcony, but it would be less expensive and more stealthy to get the ALA100M module and supply your own wire for stringing around the balcony railing. The benefit of the 1-meter loop, though, is that is can be rotated to help with interference rejection.

Wellbrook products are not cheap, but fairly priced considering the quality and performance.

 

[highwayman1224]

I live in a single story apartment and have a Wellbrook LA5030 indoor/outdoor loop and I absolutely love it! I have it attached to a small camera tripod that sits on the patio wall. I can't wait to get my fdm-s2 in a couple of days so I can start seeing how to enjoy this sdr stuff!