A little guidance..

[nd5y]

BTW: I read that I should be getting something from 10000 or 15000... Is that accurate?

I don't know if this is actually what you are asking about but from the DFW area you should be able to hear WWV http://tf.nist.gov/stations/wwv.html in the daytime on 5000, 10000, and probably 15000 and 20000 and at night on 2500, 5000 and maybe 10000 kHz.

 

[N1BHH]

I bought my Grundig Yachtboy from Radio Shack about 5 years ago after my DX-440 gave up the ghost. I love it. You should try stringing a wire up, don't need to be fancy, just some cheap speaker wire and a couple clips and your in business. I once picked up a 25 foot zip cord cable with a 1/8" phone plug on one end and stripped and tinned ends at the other and made a simple dipole out of that for a temporary set up when visiting on Cape Cod and it did superbly.

Most of your shortwave broadcasters will be using AM and for the most part only have a fairly short program time. Some transmitters are used by multiple countries, so you may hear Deutche Welle one hour then the BBC the next hour and RCI the next hour, all from the same transmitter.

 

[andrewccm]

Thanks again.. Yeah I already ran a long span of speaker wire up in to my attic and strung it between the rafters. Seems to be working decently. I need to get a PAL connector as the alligator clip to the antenna creates too much bleed over from local AM channels. I need to work with grounding as well.. I can tell that seems to make a big difference with noise levels as does placement in my house. Unfortunately, I have a lot of RF going on in my home (several wireless routers and bridges, multiple computers, laptops and servers among other things). I noticed that going downstairs out of my office and into the kitchen, things got much less noisy and I actually got better reception with just the stock wire whip.

This is definitely fun stuff.

 

[andrewccm]

Wow thats a great price for a E1, should you be in the market for a good Antenna I would recomend the Sony AN-LP1:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Sony-AN-LP1-Portable-Active-Antenna_W0QQitemZ360054659851QQihZ023QQcategoryZ15051QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

How good is this? I would hope it would be A LOT better than the whip... but don't want to spend $120 (after shipping) to find out it isn't all that much better.

Thanks for the suggestion... I am definitely thinking about it. I also would need to figure out what adapters I would need to get it from 1/8" jack to PAL. If anyone has a part # that would be ideal.

Thanks again!

 

[andrewccm]

Well my impatience got the best of me and I went ahead and ordered the Sony AN-LP1.

 

[E-Man]

I was amazed in the performance of the AN-LP1 over the Radio Shack Reel Antenna that I was using with my DX-398.

Passport to World Band 2007 (page 228) says:

"Sony's AN-LP1 has long been the best portable Antenna"

Radio Intel has a comparison Degen DE31 vs. Sony ANLP-1:

http://www.radiointel.com/review-degende31.htm

I also have a PAR EF-SWL Antenna that I mainly use with my RX-320D, another excellent antenna that I have permanently mounted in my attic. In comparison the PAR EF-SWL seems to slightly pull in distant signals better, but it is more prone to interference, I have to shut off all my fluorescent lights to quiet things down.

I hope you enjoy your Sony AN-LP1 as much as I do.

 

[Zaratsu]

HAY GUYS! might want to hold off a sec and hit that yahoo group for the E1. (nice price btw, i'm jealous )

The E1 has a special (well, european anyways) antannae input. ANP-L1 wont work with it without the connector.


Whos got a link to that RF connector place? Dont cheep out on the connector, its the weakest link with that setup. Where is the closest Fry's to CT?