radiomancanada
Member
Any good outdoor vertical shortwave antennas I could use.
Awesome product, for a space saving compromise 6 foot antenna it receives AM Broadcast Band DX clear as a bell.
https://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/sw_ant/1026.html
The Apex 6' vertical is a special case. Designed primarily for attachment to over-sensitive little sw portables that overload, what you have is a small 6' whip with feedline you mount outdoors away from indoor noise sources. More or less it is a way to get your telescopic whip outside for the most part.
You are instructed to use only the feedline that came with it, and not your own. That feedline is consructed along with the antennas broadband internal network (50 ohm resistor?) to not have any common-mode connection (which is good). It is not resonant on any specific band. It's built pretty well, and all the mounting hardware comes with it.
Put an antenna analyzer or rx-only tuner on it and you'll soon find out.
Still, in the end it is only 6 feet of wire basically. HOWEVER, that is more than enough for portables. AND, limited common-mode interaction from the shack run. AND, with all that, you may be more easily able to position it away from noise sources.
But, depending on your listening targets and location, 6 feet of wire may not be enough.
It isn't that it doesn't work - just know what you are dealing with.
I've been using my old 27 MHz CB half wave antenna (Australian "station master" brand) for years with better results down to 5 MHz than any random wire i have used in a rural environment and about 1 metre above the ground.
Yeah people think I'm nuts using a cb antenna but for me it works better and with less noise than my PAR end fed swl antenna. Like you said, it works very well.Glad to hear i'm not the only one then. Surprised at how well it works, can you confirm equal or better results than a random wire?