Eton Executive Satellit

[skydive1860]

New in box Eton Grundig Executive Satellit. Tried a random wire and J Pole and You Loop. Only occasionally got distorted DX stations and trouble even with WWV. No joy with whip either.
Now what? Thanks for reading.

 

[bearcatrp]

The youloop should be giving you some good stations to listen to. 2 nights ago I was using mine with great success with the sides east and west. How are you connecting these antennas to your radio? Amy just north of you by clearwater. 3 nights ago, the conditions where horrible. Its a hit and miss each night.

 

[bearcatrp]

I just checked the conditions. Horrible right now. Are you trying at night or day time?

 

[WA8ZTZ]

Do not blame the radio or the antennas... yet.
You do not mention what freqs you are listening and when, but FWIW, 40 has been vy noisy and 10 has had much QSB
all weekend at my QTH.

 

[ka3jjz]

The YouLoop is not really made for little portables. It is made for SDRs which are highly sensitive and don't need much of an antenna to work so you can discard that as a cause. A J pole really isn't designed for HF use, though it might work OK in a pinch

Be aware of propagation conditions. Flares can do very nasty things to our ionosphere. Sites like Spaceweather.com usually announce when we get hit with CMEs or flares.

Mike

 

[skydive1860]

The youloop should be giving you some good stations to listen to. 2 nights ago I was using mine with great success with the sides east and west. How are you connecting these antennas to your radio? Amy just north of you by clearwater. 3 nights ago, the conditions where horrible. Its a hit and miss each night.

Howdy neighbor. Connecting all with adapters for the antenna feed. I also strung 55 feet of 213 cable and feed it directly to the radio with no feed cable, just the 213 acting as a feed and as an antenna. No idea what I'm doing, but having great time. Thanks much for reading. Got lots of scanners for public service however purchased the Eton and as yet to be installed SDR to go after HF. I'm familiar with ssb and upper and lower and fine tuning and bands and propagation. Where would you go for night Ham operators on which band? I get the occasional foreign and Christian broadcasts but not the usual ham I used to get on the tube radios.
I suspect it's my not using the receiver correctly. Good luck!

 

[skydive1860]

The YouLoop is not really made for little portables. It is made for SDRs which are highly sensitive and don't need much of an antenna to work so you can discard that as a cause. A J pole really isn't designed for HF use, though it might work OK in a pinch

Be aware of propagation conditions. Flares can do very nasty things to our ionosphere. Sites like Spaceweather.com usually announce when we get hit with CMEs or flares.

Mike

Thanks for reading. I put up the you loop and am installing SDR next couple of days. I'll go to spaceweather from now on to see which way the wind is blowing. Thanks!

 

[skydive1860]

Do not blame the radio or the antennas... yet.
You do not mention what freqs you are listening and when, but FWIW, 40 has been vy noisy and 10 has had much QSB
all weekend at my QTH.

Installing the SDR tonight. I've been going from about 60 to about 20 meters at night receive only. I've been wondering if it has been unusually bad as it sometimes got when i used to listen to tube SW. Thanks for reading.

 

[ka3jjz]

Which SDR are you installing? The YouLoop was initially designed for Airspy's but it may work well with other very sensitive SDRs too

Mike

 

[bearcatrp]

Am using my LAN-IQ SDR with great success.

 

[ka3jjz]

Keep in mind that during the night, staying below 10-11 Mhz is about as high as you can go at night unless the sun is kicking up its heels. (which it is). Stay lower than this at night; these freqs won't propagate during the day because of absorption

Mike

 

[skydive1860]

Which SDR are you installing? The YouLoop was initially designed for Airspy's but it may work well with other very sensitive SDRs too

Mike

No idea. Background radio some computer brains. Used to use police scanners to make a living. Now getting back into SWL ham. NEW GEN receiver, generic. Figured I would install couple year old never used dongle and then decide upgrades when I find out whats what. Have a J pole, you loop, and 55 feet of 213 Belden up in a tree. The Belden just goes inside room with no other feeder, it just goes into the SDR or radio. Since I have no idea what I'm doing, this is great fun.
So anyways shall I download Airspy and does it come with a driver? I'm thinking find an install video on my phone and follow while installing in laptop. Many thanks.

 

[skydive1860]

The youloop should be giving you some good stations to listen to. 2 nights ago I was using mine with great success with the sides east and west. How are you connecting these antennas to your radio? Amy just north of you by clearwater. 3 nights ago, the conditions where horrible. Its a hit and miss each night.

I just put up the you loop outside, waterproofed. I have yet to download program and driver.

 

[skydive1860]

Keep in mind that during the night, staying below 10-11 Mhz is about as high as you can go at night unless the sun is kicking up its heels. (which it is). Stay lower than this at night; these freqs won't propagate during the day because of absorption

Mike

Copy 10-11. Raised and tested on tube tech. I'm thinking SDR would run about a quarter million for a waterfall back in the day. 3K for a cell phone. Yikes!

 

[Blackswan73]

If I am understanding the op correctly, you are using RG213 coax as an antenna. Unless the coax is stripped of the shield, the center conductor, which is the part of the coax the radio feeds into the receiver is shielded. This is essentially the same as putting an antenna into a metal box and expecting it to work well. The center of a coax cable is what connects to a random wire antenna. You can use coax wire to make a “Bazooka” type antenna, but that antenna has the shield cut, so it is not a continuous cable

B.S.

 

[skydive1860]

I couldn't resist the urge to try the 213 since I know just enough to be dangerous. Might this mean I might be able to use the cable if if connect the center conductor to the shield? For the life of me I can't figure out why the cable provides best reception when I use the center coax wire connected to my eton satellit. This is compared to my you loop which has not been hooked up to an sdr yet or a j pole I purchased. So I might do as well or better just attaching a single wire to the antenna plug? Thanks for reading.