Best base antenna

[bob1857]

Been doing lots of reading here. I wanna get a good HF receiver and enjoy my Uniden and Radio Shack scanners as well. Gonna put up a base antenna...best one that will work with normal scanners and HF receivers like AOR or ICOM. I know it might be a trade off, so what will work best for both. Thanks

 

[KC4ZEX]

Best antenna

Their is no such thing. What works for a scanner will not work on shortwave very well. For a scanner you need vertical antennas. For shortwave you should have horizontal antennas. Their are a few verticals out there that will do in a pinch if you are restricted by room like a cb vertical or a antron 99 they do very well above about 14 mhz. or 20 meters. You get more noise with a vertical. These do very poorly on a scanner on anything but low end of the low band below say 40 mhz. For shortwave a horizontal wire antenna about 28 to 50 ft will do much better. Very cheap to build and Radio shack has a kit for $10.

 

[bob1857]

Thanks. I enjoy using my scanner and have for years. I want to get into HF receiving now. I'm fortunate in that my father-in-law has an old Radio Shack movable dish installed. I'm gonna take it down but use the mast to put up a good scanner antenna and eventually HAM (studying for license now). But HF is here for me now. Got a good friend who is a big time HAM. I'm sure he can help.

 

[VernM]

Easiest HF antenna would be to run an inslulated hookup wire to the base of that mast on the roof (or where ever) and attach with a screw. You then have a vertical HF antenna that will introduce you to that part of the spectrum. Then read a good book (there are many) on antenna principals to devise the ".2" version.

 

[bob1857]

actually the mast is a 3" pipe that starts at the ground, runs up side of house (bolted to it) then extends about 10 ft abobe roof peak. Very solid and sturdy.