Looking for advice on improving this existing antenna. Was considering an outside sky loop antenna but for a variety of reasons have scrapped that idea. So I want to improve this attic antenna.
The principal radio being used on this antenna is a vintage Hallicrafters with a high impedance balanced input. However, I'd like to occasionally run a Tecsun portable on this antenna too.
Right now, I have about 43 feet of uninsulated copper wire attached to PVC pipe as insulators drilled into attic studs. This length of wire is said to be resonate around 10.8 Mhz. The antenna is end fed with 75 ohm TV coax where the shield is grounded to cold copper water pipe (FYI household electrical ground is also water pipe). Also scavenged four slip on ferite beads from old VGA monitor cables and slipped all four over the coax about a foot from the radio. FYI...the coax is connected to the radio such that the center coax wire is connected to the "A" terminal, the shield is connected to the ground terminal, and "D" side of the balanced input is shorted to ground per the manual instructions for single end fed wire installation.
This antenna works but it seems it could work better.
From researching this, the options that I seem to have to improve signal and lower noise are as follows:
1. Install a 9:1 unun on existing end fed wire (such as the Winradio WR-LWA-0130 variety).
2. Cut the antenna in the middle to create a dipole and then use 450 ohm ladder line instead of coax.
3. Cut the antenna in the middle to create a dipole and use a 9:1 balun with existing 75 ohm TV coax.
4. Acquire an antenna tuner such as MFJ-16010.
Some of what I have read conflicts with other things I have read so wanted to get opinions here.
If I am understanding this right, if the radio is high impedance with a balanced input, then I do not need any baluns if I acquire 450 ohm ladder line, cut the antenna wire in the middle and thus make a dipole, and run the ladder line straight to the high impedance balanced input. Is this understanding correct? This is what I would like to do since it is cheap and relatively easy.
However, I also have a Tecsun PL-880 that I would like to occasionally use with this antenna and I presume it has a 50 ohm input. Am I going to need some transformer when using this radio if I am set up as above? In other words, what is best practice when switching radios of different input impedance?
That all said, any advice or opinions? Thanks!
The principal radio being used on this antenna is a vintage Hallicrafters with a high impedance balanced input. However, I'd like to occasionally run a Tecsun portable on this antenna too.
Right now, I have about 43 feet of uninsulated copper wire attached to PVC pipe as insulators drilled into attic studs. This length of wire is said to be resonate around 10.8 Mhz. The antenna is end fed with 75 ohm TV coax where the shield is grounded to cold copper water pipe (FYI household electrical ground is also water pipe). Also scavenged four slip on ferite beads from old VGA monitor cables and slipped all four over the coax about a foot from the radio. FYI...the coax is connected to the radio such that the center coax wire is connected to the "A" terminal, the shield is connected to the ground terminal, and "D" side of the balanced input is shorted to ground per the manual instructions for single end fed wire installation.
This antenna works but it seems it could work better.
From researching this, the options that I seem to have to improve signal and lower noise are as follows:
1. Install a 9:1 unun on existing end fed wire (such as the Winradio WR-LWA-0130 variety).
2. Cut the antenna in the middle to create a dipole and then use 450 ohm ladder line instead of coax.
3. Cut the antenna in the middle to create a dipole and use a 9:1 balun with existing 75 ohm TV coax.
4. Acquire an antenna tuner such as MFJ-16010.
Some of what I have read conflicts with other things I have read so wanted to get opinions here.
If I am understanding this right, if the radio is high impedance with a balanced input, then I do not need any baluns if I acquire 450 ohm ladder line, cut the antenna wire in the middle and thus make a dipole, and run the ladder line straight to the high impedance balanced input. Is this understanding correct? This is what I would like to do since it is cheap and relatively easy.
However, I also have a Tecsun PL-880 that I would like to occasionally use with this antenna and I presume it has a 50 ohm input. Am I going to need some transformer when using this radio if I am set up as above? In other words, what is best practice when switching radios of different input impedance?
That all said, any advice or opinions? Thanks!