Best Quick Antenna for a Desert Camping Trip?

[Airdorn]

Hi there friends!

Soon I'm going solo camping out in the Arizona desert and I plan to take my Shortwave radio with me. I have the Grundig Satellit 750. It has an external antenna connector on the side that takes a random wire in the positive side and (I presume) a wire attached to a ground stake in the negative side.

I want to construct a fast antenna for some very good reception. I was thinking of a long random wire. I am pretty sure I'll have opportunity to suspend said wire around 12 feet in the air, probably tied to a rock formation. I was wondering, how long should I endeavor to make this random wire? After a certain length, does length no longer matter with this kind of antenna?

Is this the best type to construct, of should I be focusing on some kind of loop antenna or something else?

I attached a pic of the side of the Grundig radio. There is a BNC connection marked SW Ant. It is 50 Ohm. I'm wondering if I should use that instead?

I don't want to spend a ton of money on pro equipment, this is all just for fun! I want to see what I can receive in the dry desert and I plan to keep a log of my findings. Any expert insight would be greatly appreciated!

 

[prcguy]

I would recommend a 9:1 transformer and about 50ft of wire with coax back to the radio, no need for a ground rod. Or a loop on the ground with the same transformer might work well since you will have a lot of space.

 

[ka3jjz]

No ground rod, but it may (or may not) help to attach a length of wire to the ground of the 9:1 transformer or the radio if you are using a random wire. Experimentation will show you which does better. Yes, length does indeed make a difference. In general, depending on the frequency and the environment, longer antennas become bi-directional off their ends. You would need a different transformer for these, but at 50 foot a 9:1 makes some sense. And beware of static - I understand from folks having served in desert environs that it can be pure hell on front ends. If you can toss the box together that is discussed below, you will benefit from the extra protection.

Static drain for outside long wire antenna

Up until now I've used the old tube radios I collect and restore for DXing. I use a 50' outside wire for my antenna. Static (other than lightning) isn't a problem for tube radios. But I decided I wanted to try one of the new portable radios and ordered a Tecsun PL-880, which should arrive in a...

forums.radioreference.com

Mike

 

[kaptkarma]

I took a slinky and ran a wire from the center of the slinky directly to my whip antenna. I used a couple of wire ties on each end to provide mounting loops.

Totally cheap (only $3.59 on Amazon) and it is portable when compressed. I'm waiting for a "Giant" slinky to see how it works. The slinky has 68 feet of flat wire and you can stretch the original slinky to about 15 feet without permanent deformation.

I usually see a 25 to 30 dB signal increase on my PL-330 -- quite a difference with only a little increase in noise.

There are lots of plans on the internet to view. Buy two and build a dipole.

It's a little hard to see in the photos attached but if you zoom in you can see it hanging on my patio.

Try connecting the wire to the red SW Antenna input on your radio.

Have fun!

 

[Dirk_SDR]

I took a slinky and ran a wire from the center of the slinky directly to my whip antenna. I used a couple of wire ties on each end to provide mounting loops.

Totally cheap (only $3.59 on Amazon) and it is portable when compressed. I'm waiting for a "Giant" slinky to see how it works. The slinky has 68 feet of flat wire and you can stretch the original slinky to about 15 feet without permanent deformation.

I usually see a 25 to 30 dB signal increase on my PL-330 -- quite a difference with only a little increase in noise.

There are lots of plans on the internet to view. Buy two and build a dipole.

It's a little hard to see in the photos attached but if you zoom in you can see it hanging on my patio.

Try connecting the wire to the red SW Antenna input on your radio.

Have fun!

Also useful as dipole:

Slinky-coil dipole

Amateur Radio antenna pages of Frank N4SPP

www.nonstopsystems.com

 

[Rt169Radio]

There is also this option that is really quick

CC Shortwave Reel Antenna

A convenient and inexpensive way to improve the reception of any shortwave radio

ccrane.com

 

[ka3jjz]

That wouldn't be bad for a portable, but for what the OP appears to be using (similar to a Grundig Satellit or Eton 750 series) it's probably not going to work al; that well. The 50 foot suggestion would work reasonably well down to 6 Mhz or so. And I'd still want to build something for static protection

Mike

 

[majoco]

IMHO I wouldn't connect anything to the whip antenna. Inside the radio the whip is often connected to a high impedance broadband amplifier which may well go pop with the slightest hint of static.

It's no coincidence that the red SW antenna connection is marked as '500 ohms'. It's generally accepted that a random long wire antenna has an impedance of around 450 ohms so with a ground rod or a counterpoise connected to the earth terminal it should work well.

A 'counterpoise' is another length of insulated wire laying on the ground underneath your long-ish wire - it's especially good in areas with poor soil conductivity - sand or rocky dry soil for instance - and makes your long wire into a sort of dipole. The old Yaesu FRG7 worked especially well with this arrangement when tuned with the preselector.

 

[db_gain]

You might try say a hundred or so feet of wire and make a loop of it on the ground around the operating position, the ends fitted to the red and black clampy thingys. You might try to make a rhombic out of it for directionality.

What is a Rhombic? Rhombic antenna

The ARRL and RSGB Diamond Logo is in fact, the Rhombic Antenna The Rhombic antenna was designed in the 1931 by Ed Bruce and Harald Friis. It was commonly used in the HF shortwave point to point and broadcast as a broadband directional antenna, it is also known as a diamond antenna. See 1931...

www.k0uo.com

 

[oldradioguy2010]

I too used a slinky and it was great.
Paper clipped ti to my dx 390 telescopic antenna.
Great camping ant.

DW
So. Cal