Best end fed wire antenna for alinco dxr8t

[stormtracker78]

I just got an alinco dxr8t it's an upgrade from my grunding satellite 750 I was thinking either getting the chameleon emcomm2(with extended wire) or par fed antenna( normal size) or making my own with a hundred and so feet wire and a 9:1:1 un/un balun and RF choke with any of these antennas I was thinking about using an mfj 956 antenna passive preselector/tuner with the mfj 212 antenna tuner would those be good to use for the Alinco or just use the antennas with an RF choke and grounded of course, does anyone have this model and have done something else I'm basically trying to get 160 to 10 meters mostly SSB utility CW and rtty bands and sw broadcast bands I have a pretty good size backyard and I'm not under H O A restrictions although I would like to try to keep the antenna as unobtrusive as possible any recommendations or ideas would be most welcome also when I hang the wire do I hang it north to south or east to west I'm in Brownsville Texas the tip of Texas should I hang half of the wire north to south and then 45 degrees east and west I heard by the way we position the wire since it receives Broadband side in the northern hemisphere I'm not sure what side is best for amateur bands and shortwave broadcast bands

 

[majoco]

Doesn't the "period" work on your keyboard! I put some in for you.

I just got an alinco dxr8t it's an upgrade from my grunding satellite 750. I was thinking either getting the chameleon emcomm2(with extended wire) or par fed antenna( normal size) or making my own with a hundred and so feet wire and a 9:1:1 un/un balun and RF choke with any of these antennas. I was thinking about using an mfj 956 antenna passive preselector/tuner with the mfj 212 antenna tuner would those be good to use for the Alinco or just use the antennas with an RF choke and grounded of course. D

Does anyone have this model and have done something else. I'm basically trying to get 160 to 10 meters mostly SSB utility CW and rtty bands and sw broadcast bands. I have a pretty good size backyard and I'm not under H O A restrictions although I would like to try to keep the antenna as unobtrusive as possible. Any recommendations or ideas would be most welcome. Also when I hang the wire do I hang it north to south or east to west - I'm in Brownsville Texas the tip of Texas - should I hang half of the wire north to south and then 45 degrees east and west? I heard by the way we position the wire since it receives Broadband side in the northern hemisphere - I'm not sure what side is best for amateur bands and shortwave broadcast bands

Making your own antenna and finding it works well is always a satisfying experience. In a previous house I had a 45 foot wire strung across the back on TV masts with a 9:1 unun and an RF choke into about 25 feet of RG58 which worked very well from all directions - mind you I had unobstructed views for miles around especially to the north west. Now I have a 45/15 feet OCFD which although it works quite well I now live in a valley so reception is not so good.

IMHO I would try without any tuner first - the whole idea of the unun is to match the antenna to the 50 ohm cable and the input impedance of the Alinco and it has a wide frequency coverage. As you say, all the tuner does is turn into a preselector which in theory should be unnecessary if the radio has good front end filters. A preselector doesn't make your wanted signal any better if you feed it with 50 ohm coax, it just makes the unwanted signals worse! Some radios have a preselector built-in, the old Yaesu FRG7 for example, but that was there as there was no front end filtering other than that.

If you have plenty of space then you may like to have the luxury of two antennas - one north-south and another east - west or any direction as long as they are at right-angles to each other. A coaxial switch near your radio then you can pick the best for any situation. Above all - experiment! That's half the fun!

 

[iMONITOR]

Have you considered a loop? I'm using the MFJ-1886 Receive Active Loop, .5-30MHz. It's impressive! How do you like the Alinco DXR8T?

MFJ Enterprises Inc.

 

[stormtracker78]

Thanks guys Alinco just arrived and I hooked it up to my homemade zepp which is not grounded but I just wanted to make sure it was working okay and it's awesome already picking up I think rrrty in the 7.0000 mhz area my backyard does have a couple of trees and there is some obstructions some trees and I do get urm from other AM stationsI live in the suburbs so it's house to house to house but I do got a pretty good size backyard I appreciate all the info

 

[stormtracker78]

Oh btw does it matter where it stretched should I stretch it north to south and then doing east to west inverted l or an inverted V North to south south I mean does the direction really matter and if so what's the best what's your opinion and mfj 2920 9:1 balun

 

[ka3jjz]

You want to keep it unobtrusive, yet you have a Zepp? Hmmm...something is amiss here...

Anyway, if you are getting spurs from your local AM stations, there are a couple of solutions. You could use a passive preselector (not an active one) such as the MFJ-956 that you mention will do nicely; a less expensive alternative is a MW filter, such as those sold by PAR electronics. Either will work just fine.

Now back to unobtrusive - no question, loops can be hard to spot if mounted in a hard to see spot. While the 1886 antenna is but one, there are many others. We have many such loops linked here in our wiki (links are always in blue)

https://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Loops

I'll address your other questions in the next message...Mike

 

[ka3jjz]

How antennas work doesn't change with the service you want to hear - amateur, utility or broadcast, the physics don't change. The directivity of the antenna is directly related to its length, its height above ground and the frequency being used, as well as the type of antenna. For example the classic dipole is broadside directive; A very long wire becomes directive off its ends when it starts getting very long at the operating frequency. This also has to do with from where you want to hear your stations. Being in Texas, DXing Latin America, Caribbean and Central America is a natural choice. I'll talk a little about propagation in a follow up, but as for learning about antennas, building a library and reading up on the topic is an inexpensive way to go. See this page from Universal Radio...

Antenna Books

Books by the ARRL and the Radio Society of Great Britain are recognized as some of the best in the field. I'd look at the ARRL Antenna Handbook, ARRL Receiving Antennas for the Radio Amateur, RSGB HF Antennas for Everyone and RSGB Stealth Antennas 2nd Edition

 

[ka3jjz]

The other side of how antennas work is understanding how a HF signal gets to you in the first place. This can be a very technical subject, but you really don't need a degree in solar physics to understand enough of this. Start easy with this website - make sure your Flash player is on...

Propagation Primer - Flash Movie by AE4RV

That should be enough for now...we have forums for SWBC, utility, digital (including RTTY stuff) and equipment, so please parse your questions accordingly...Mike

 

[stormtracker78]

Thanks guys giving me a lot to really research as regards to an unobtrusive lol ! originally it didn't matter to me which is why I wanted to try the zeppp it was the cheapest most economical but then my wife saw the backyard and if any of y'all are married hams out there with women who are not really into the subject you know the situation!!! I'm just thankful she's giving me permission to hang a wire out there basically what I'm thinking is getting a couple of bird houses high up hanging the wire from bird house to bird house ATM I'm researching the chameleon emcomm2 wire 120 so foot version getting a 9: 1 balun either on eBay or an mfj 2929 and the mfj 956 antenna tuner preselector and then hooking the RH a RF choke on the coax line as regards for the lion I have it narrowed down between rg8x and lmr400 or rg58

 

[stormtracker78]

Sry rha RF choke

 

[prcguy]

I would recommend a PAR End Fed SW, which is a commercial 9:1 type with about 45ft of wire. It seems to be the industry standard of SW end fed antennas.

 

[ka3jjz]

And that can be made unobtrusive too, particularly since the OP mentioned he's got some trees on his property... heck, he's got a Zepp, this should be a no-brainer....Mike

 

[majoco]

Isn't a Zepp a tuned antenna? An HF J-pole? Oh, no - J-Poles again....

 

[nanZor]

The PAR / LNR Precision is the *much* better choice for that receiver than the Chameleon Emcomm.

I have both. Well, all three if you count the Alinco receiver too. The PAR EF-SWL is designed specifically for rx-only, and as such has much better specifications on the low bands, including AM BCB than the Chameleon.

The PAR EF-SWL is a true 9:1 transformer, that allows you to change it's configuration from isolated to non-isolated, which is very important depending on what you want to do. Loop or random end fed - no problem. Since the ground jumper is configurable, you can optimize depending on your needs.

The Chameleon is actually a 5:1 transformer, and is lossy on the low bands. This is the "Emcomm" part, where you can rest assured that your transmitter won't have any problems putting rf into it. Getting rf OUT from that loss on the low bands is another matter altogether, but wire-length can help make up for that.

If you take the Chameleon transformers apart like I have, you'll find that they are very similar to the Comet CHA-250B verticals, and is well documented here:

MARTIN - G8JNJ

So for your rx-only purposes, I highly recommend the PAR EF-SWL over the Chameleon. You could press one into service, but you may be running the 10db preamp on the Alinco on the low bands, whereas with the PAR, you won't have to run the preamp at all. At least that's been my experience.