Best AM BCB DXing Antenna

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radioguy99

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I used to have a Valor 160 Meter mobile antenna several years ago. It had been heavily used and the coil had split in the center from being weathered. Since Valor is no longer around, it seems we are now left with a pile of junk known as the Jetstream 160 meter antenna, which in my opinion is like most new stuff today, Junk.

Is there anything left besides JS that I do not know about? I would love it for the 160 meter band, but it also works very well on the AM BCB for DX'ing. Since I do all of my radio hobbies from my truck and not at my house, it would be good to know what the options are, if any. It seems as time goes on, the durability of antennas, radios and accessories goes down the drain.

The other antenna I have had good luck with is a 102" steel whip.

I am working on a directional AM BCB DX antenna for the car, so far, it is working well.
 

ka3jjz

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Hands down the best antenna for MW DXing is a box loop - the great advantage here is that they're somewhat directional, so if you are on a graveyard channel, you stand a chance of nulling one station out and bringing up another. I've had many a MW DXer tell me the same thing...

Unless, of course you have the acreage for a nice beveridge or two - and at these frequencies, it will be really long....

There are loads of plans on the web - and I'd be very surprised if the National Radio Club or the IRCA didn't have links to these on their website somewhere...Mike
 
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Boombox

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If you want to DX BCB from your truck, I've read of guys like Mark Connelly (WA1ON, I think) who used to DX from his car with a loop. How he did it (including tuning the loop from inside his car) I don't really know -- if I recall, the loop was outside his car and his radio (a DX440 at the time) was inside the car. There are pics and info on the web somewhere.

There are also guys who put out temporary beverages-on-the-ground and DX BCB from vehicles that way.

I've had good results on AM BCB with a 150 ft low wire, just strung along some shrubs and bushes. So even just that much wire can pull in stations. Might not work well for transmit on 160 m though.
 

ka3jjz

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Certainly wires work - and the really long ones can be directional, and therein lies the big plus over plain wire antennas for a box loop. They can be tilted and/or rotated so you might be able to null one station on a frequency to bring the other in.

If you talk to any MW DXer, chances are a box loop of one kind or another is in his/her toolkit

Mike
 

k9rzz

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Mark Connelly (WA1ION) big thing was hearing Europe and Africa on the MW band, so he was just interested in one direction. Set it and forget it.

A 102 inch whip should be plenty of antenna for any AM receiver in the car. I like wires too:

Shortwave DXpedition - Project: Clam Lake - YouTube

If you park and DX, then you should lay out some BOGs (Beverage On Ground). Google that.
 
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radioguy99

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Cool, thanks for all that replied. I am working on a decent Loop antenna and will post info on that later.

I managed to make it down to the Titan Missle museum this past weekend and take the tour of the place and put the giant superdiscone to some good use. This thing is TRULY amazing!! It is located in Green Valley AZ and is at a killer location for doing DXing on all the bands.
 

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majoco

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Do they provide a socket on the fence for you to connect your radio?.......:D

I've often though I'd like to make one of those HF discones just to see how well they work. They are often found at airports around the South Pacific Islands as they take up little room and have a reasonable broadband performance - and they can keep them inside the perimeter fence!
 

radioguy99

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Do they provide a socket on the fence for you to connect your radio?.......:D

I've often though I'd like to make one of those HF discones just to see how well they work. They are often found at airports around the South Pacific Islands as they take up little room and have a reasonable broadband performance - and they can keep them inside the perimeter fence!

Yes, there is a small (electrical) box next to the park bench in the photo with a 25 foot (7.6 meters) of RG-8X that has PL259 connectors on both ends. It is rolled up inside the box and ready to go for whoever wants to use it. I will post more photos if anyone is interested. This is indeed the first time I have ever heard WWV Time station on ALL 2.5, 5, 10, 15 and 20 at one time and during the day. Being able to get the 2.5 KHZ signal was amazing in itself being it was daytime. I would LOVE to have this in my backyard. Compared to the discone that is on my truck, it doesn't compare.
 

ka3jjz

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OK we're wandering far astray of the topic of the best MW (i.e. AM broadcast) antennas - if you want to discuss that huge discone (very interesting, by the way), please start a new thread. Perfectly acceptable topic there

Mike
 

ridgescan

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To elaborate the point of a longwire, you have the gift of being mobile. There's a guy out in Germany that goes on DXpeditions in his mobile-here's his channel...look at his MW DXs. He uses as long as 312' of wire he strings out from the car and runs the rig up on his dash.
senderjaeger - YouTube

You being mobile, can pick a safe spacious field to run one out to. This is something I've been thinking of trying. I wouldn't mind having a setup in my truck for my r75, and trying it up on some of these coastal mountains and highlands I could access. I could start out with my 100' reel type metal tape measure :)
 

majoco

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I'd love to run out a super long wire out on our rifle range when we're not shooting - 900 yards easily and over a mile with a bend in it. All I have to do is persuade the farmer to turn his electric fences off.........:roll:
 

radioguy99

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I bought one of the Grundig AM loops and it actually works pretty well. I will post photos of what I fabricated. You have to take the regular rod antenna off in order for it to work properly but it is great to be able to null out the many stations on one frequency. This is especially true for the (graveyard) channels, 1230,1240,1490 ect. One of the great catches were being able to hear all 3 stations on 570, KLAC in LA, KNRS in SLC and KSNM in Las Cruces all at one time and being able to rotate the antenna and null out two while hearing one. I am sure there are much better loops out there, but for a simple 25.00 this one does pretty good.

I am going to upload vids to my Youtube for those who may be interested in hearing how well this performs. I also have one of the MORAD AM 1610 TIS antennas that are made for the highway advisory radio transmitters. The thing cost 504.00 and does pretty well on the upper portion of the band.

The bad part where I live I am 2 blocks from 550 KFYI and 1400 KSUN. I can see both towers in my backyard! So the IBOC splatter from 550, it pretty bad. Cannot wait to move! At least move 5 miles away from them.
 

SCPD

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... The bad part where I live I am 2 blocks from 550 KFYI and 1400 KSUN. I can see both towers in my backyard! So the IBOC splatter from 550, it pretty bad. Cannot wait to move! At least move 5 miles away from them.

Man, what a bad situation! Hope you can relocate soon. I assume you've tried some "traps" tuned to those specific freqs. I realize traps will not completely eliminate the problem, but they might make things a bit better.
 

mainetrunk

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I got a tower by me throwing interference everytime it transmits. ANY freq I have without a tone gets all distorted. Especially between 25--35 mhz.. Sensitive equipment
 
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