HF Antenna

[CSL126]

What is a good HF antenna? what type of wiring should I use? and does the length of the wire matter with HF, because a long reel antenna came with my yatchboy 400 pe. I just want to try to hear aircraft over the atlantic. I posted the same thing in the antenna forum, but i figured that i might as well go ahead and post it here too.

 

[FreqMgr]

I've monitored ARINC Pacific, Atlantic and Caribbean HF freqs for a number years, and during those years used various antennas, some a tad on the expensive side. Some worked okay on various freqs, others not so hot. Same comment goes for the Radio Shack $10.99 HF antenna kit which consists of 75 ft of copper wire, 50 ft of plastic coated lead-in wire and insulators. Of all the antennas I've used, this one has been the best. I usually don't run the full 75 ft. The one I'm using now is a little over 50 ft. because of yard/building layout. The longer the antenna, the lower the frequencies you can pull in, so if you can run the full 75 ft., do so. You won't find an inexpensive antenna specifically cut for, say, the individual ARINC frequencies that range between 3 and 20 megs. The 50 to 75 ft. wire will do fine, I assure you.

 

[rbellows]

is there an RS product # for that?

 

[FreqMgr]

Catalog #278-758. Radio Shack calls it an "Outdoor Antenna Kit" on the web page, but I believe the package says "Shortwave Antenna Kit." It's available as of today (24 Jul) on RS web page. Some stores have it, others don't.

 

[kf4lne]

Its a good antenna. I dont have one of those, but I have a similar antenna made from stranded wire supported from the peak of teh roof down the hill to a tree with peices of PVC pipe for insulators. Works great for listening to shortwave radio stations and I can always get a WWV time signal using it. I do feed mine with 50 ohm coax because my radio has a 50 ohm jack on back and the coax cuts down on the noise that a simple lead in wire will pick up from things like the TV and refridgerator and such.

 

[kb2vxa]

Hi all,

A simple wire antenna will do for shortwave (HF) reception, between 50 and 100' is just fine. Isn't a roll of wire and a few "dog bone" insulators cheaper and more effective than a Rat Shack (ug) Special? With such an antenna forget the coax unless you run the antenna wire up from the ground and earth the braid at that point. A long earthing wire is innefective and ungrounded coax worse in the case of a Marconi antenna. I won't confuse you with technical details, just take my experienced word for it, unless you do it right you may create more problems than you solve.

Oh, one more thing, that Yacht Boy is just fine for portable, casual shortwave broadcast listening but if you're serious about HF monitoring get a serious receiver.

 

[kf4lne]

the yahct boy is a fine radio if you can find the mods for it and have the skill to mod it. It has a decent receiver and if you feel like tapping the IF and feeding it out to another receiver you can make a wonderful HF receiver. Something else with the wire antennas, when you install the antenna the signals will come to the antenna on teh broadside so if you want to hear signals from east and west string the antenna north-south or if you want some ok receive from both n-s and e-w make teh antenna into an L shape or run it nw-se or something like that. If your radio has a external antenna jack you could also make a offcenter fed dipole using a 75-300 ohm adapter and connecting the 300 ohm side to the dipole and running coax back to the radio. I had a SWL antenna built like this once, I used the radio shack 300 ohm adapter and 50 feet of 75 ohm coax and at the radio end I used the radio shack F to 1/8 mono plug adapter. It worked really well and it was easy enough to add elements to it for other bands too. I sold that antenna for far more than it was worth after a SWL friend came to see it and wanted one for himself. Anyway, enjoy the SWL listening

 

[kb2vxa]

Hi LNE and all,

"If your radio has a external antenna jack you could also make a offcenter fed dipole using a 75-300 ohm adapter and connecting the 300 ohm side to the dipole and running coax back to the radio."

I think it's called a balun. (;->) There are pros and cons with that sort of thing, ham to ham we'll agree on that. The part I disagree on is the location of the balun, ladder line or twinlead has much lower loss than any coax so putting the balun at the "bottom end" much improves overall efficiency.

Oh let's not get picky guys, the transmission line loss factor vs. frequency is only one thing and there is much more to take into consideration. One thing the casual listener may or may not know is we're talking HF balun here, the sort made for ham use. You're talking a 4:1 ratio same as a common TV balun but one of those won't work, nowhere the inductance needed for the much lower frequency range. BTW, when the balun is in the "shack" it can be a 1:1 because paralell line couldn't care less about impedance mismatch or SWR when transmitting. Then again antenna impedance is frequency dependent and can be anything from soup to nuts so it isn't a consideration with this sort of an arrangement.