Sunyjim
Member
I'm getting back into shortwave listening.
It's been a while and wow the landscape has changed on the dial, no more BBC, Netherlands, DW, HCJB, VOA, Christian Science Monitor. I've have Found China, Taiwan, lots of WWCR and WWFR but I'm working to get a long antenna up to hear the english stations that are not aimed at my Southern Ontario Canada location. I mostly listen in the evening so the plan was optimize the antenna for 60m, 49m, 31m bands
So far I have stretched as much 14 guage solid coated copper wire up in my back yard as will fit.
To isolate the wire I used drilled wooden blocks for both ends of the wire, and stretched it out with rope from the back of the house (25ft up) to a clothes line post (8ft up) so it is gradually sloping down to the NE, I added a heavy screen door spring to take the stress off the wire at one end. The length ended up being about 45ft
That wire is soldered to the center conductor of RG6 75 Ohm cable that i had, that I ran into the house through the basement. (no balaun or tuner as of yet)
I ran the cable through a grounding block with another coated 14 gauge wire to a cold water pipe ground.
then to my External 75 ohm antenna jack on my Grundig Satellit 500.
I used a coax connector for the ground and at the radio because I found a "coax to euro-tv adapter" to go into the radio
Now the problem, The signal is quite weak (weaker than the built in 4ft antenna) but the ground connection it makes the signal much stronger on par with the antenna with less overall noise than without the ground, especially on the lower bands. But it does add a lot of buzzing ( cold water pipe also is also used to ground the breaker box, and motor for the gas hot water heater )
Is there any suggestions to improve my reception? Should I cut the wire in the middle and make it a dipole? Add a balaun? stick an 8ft copper stake or pipe in the ground to ground the outer shield of the coax?
It's been a while and wow the landscape has changed on the dial, no more BBC, Netherlands, DW, HCJB, VOA, Christian Science Monitor. I've have Found China, Taiwan, lots of WWCR and WWFR but I'm working to get a long antenna up to hear the english stations that are not aimed at my Southern Ontario Canada location. I mostly listen in the evening so the plan was optimize the antenna for 60m, 49m, 31m bands
So far I have stretched as much 14 guage solid coated copper wire up in my back yard as will fit.
To isolate the wire I used drilled wooden blocks for both ends of the wire, and stretched it out with rope from the back of the house (25ft up) to a clothes line post (8ft up) so it is gradually sloping down to the NE, I added a heavy screen door spring to take the stress off the wire at one end. The length ended up being about 45ft
That wire is soldered to the center conductor of RG6 75 Ohm cable that i had, that I ran into the house through the basement. (no balaun or tuner as of yet)
I ran the cable through a grounding block with another coated 14 gauge wire to a cold water pipe ground.
then to my External 75 ohm antenna jack on my Grundig Satellit 500.
I used a coax connector for the ground and at the radio because I found a "coax to euro-tv adapter" to go into the radio
Now the problem, The signal is quite weak (weaker than the built in 4ft antenna) but the ground connection it makes the signal much stronger on par with the antenna with less overall noise than without the ground, especially on the lower bands. But it does add a lot of buzzing ( cold water pipe also is also used to ground the breaker box, and motor for the gas hot water heater )
Is there any suggestions to improve my reception? Should I cut the wire in the middle and make it a dipole? Add a balaun? stick an 8ft copper stake or pipe in the ground to ground the outer shield of the coax?