HF signal amp with homebrew loop

[ridgescan]

Get some lmr240 (I love mine-very tough stuff) and run a line out and away from the home and wife's eyes to your 300-footer-amidst 6 acres, isn't there a spot where it would make no difference to your wife? Gees at those lengths, you could run some killer MWDX there. I'm kinda envious. My childhood home was on two acres and I used to get sunstroke doing yardwork I digress

 

[corbintechboy]

Get some lmr240 (I love mine-very tough stuff) and run a line out and away from the home and wife's eyes to your 300-footer-amidst 6 acres, isn't there a spot where it would make no difference to your wife? Gees at those lengths, you could run some killer MWDX there. I'm kinda envious. My childhood home was on two acres and I used to get sunstroke doing yardwork I digress

At the front of my property I have some trees. If I feel adventurous I could hang some wire in some trees up there, it would however take a lot of coax to make it back up to the house. Of course by the road up there is and old small barn, I could get real adventurous and turn that into my shack (it would need a lot of work with it's dirt floors might not be worth the time).

If I do the wire thing, I would love to situate the wire over the ponds. I think the reflective properties of water would have to have some effect (to the better) on the signal. The real problem here is I just have no trees around the house. If I had some trees I would have a hundred different wires at a hundred different lengths and would be able to get them high enough she wouldn't care.

I have one tree close on the edge of one pond with a lean towards the water, it looks like it might could fall any day. Everything is just so far from me to have any real feasible option.

Nice big lot with limited options lol.

Edit:

Here is my property, in the black lines (no artist hard to make lines with my mouse lol):

 

[SpectreOZ]

Very good, but you can't evaluate an antenna over night. (and it's not just me that say's that)

Leave that 300 footer up if you can, give it a chance to strut it's stuff.

Agreed... I was initially disappointed with my T2FD until it started whomping my longwire by a significant margin with a lower noise floor into the bargain, flexibility is the key IMHO


RadioTuner seeing as your home appears to be at the rear of the parcel of land how about making your rear fence line the antenna (or a support for it) and run the coax from that to the house?

 

[Boombox]

With property like that you could run a beverage on the ground. Less issues with lightning (you still would want to protect your radio, though), and you could roll it up if unused. Being on the ground, the wife wouldn't see it, if that's the issue she has with it. BOG's work great on MW, probably work o.k. on SW also. They're directional, though.

 

[corbintechboy]

Agreed... I was initially disappointed with my T2FD until it started whomping my longwire by a significant margin with a lower noise floor into the bargain, flexibility is the key IMHO


RadioTuner seeing as your home appears to be at the rear of the parcel of land how about making your rear fence line the antenna (or a support for it) and run the coax from that to the house?

The only fence on my property belongs to a neighboring home. I have none that belong to me.

I am two nights with the wire vs the loop. I am still impressed with the loop.

With property like that you could run a beverage on the ground. Less issues with lightning (you still would want to protect your radio, though), and you could roll it up if unused. Being on the ground, the wife wouldn't see it, if that's the issue she has with it. BOG's work great on MW, probably work o.k. on SW also. They're directional, though.

I have thought about this. Using the loop for everyday and having some temporary solution I can switch to. This would work out alright and my wife shouldn't say much if I hide it when not in use.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[k9rzz]

Agreed with the BOG. I have no idea where on this planet you live, but this is one way I would run wires. I'm guessing these wires would be 200 +/- feet long so for most of shortwave, they will be directional basically off the both ends. NE/SW would cover Europe/Pacific, E/W would cover Africa/Pacific, SE/NW would cover South America/Japan-Asia. Put up 20 feet of 2x4 behind the house, with a relay up there so you can switch between the antennas which would be fed with 'window line'. A small antenna tuner in the house can be used to maximize signals on each band. Start with one wire and add as able. They really don't need to be much higher than 15 to 20 feet (higher would be better of course). IMO, this will kick your indoor loop to the curb! My .02 cents. =:^] (Edit: find out who owns that land behind you, find out what kind of beer he likes, and offer him a case if he allows you to lay out 1,000 foot BOG on his grass during the winter. Oh yeah!)

 

[corbintechboy]

Agreed with the BOG. I have no idea where on this planet you live, but this is one way I would run wires. I'm guessing these wires would be 200 +/- feet long so for most of shortwave, they will be directional basically off the both ends. NE/SW would cover Europe/Pacific, E/W would cover Africa/Pacific, SE/NW would cover South America/Japan-Asia. Put up 20 feet of 2x4 behind the house, with a relay up there so you can switch between the antennas which would be fed with 'window line'. A small antenna tuner in the house can be used to maximize signals on each band. Start with one wire and add as able. They really don't need to be much higher than 15 to 20 feet (higher would be better of course). IMO, this will kick your indoor loop to the curb! My .02 cents. =:^] (Edit: find out who owns that land behind you, find out what kind of beer he likes, and offer him a case if he allows you to lay out 1,000 foot BOG on his grass during the winter. Oh yeah!)

I like your idea.

The land behind me is vacant and I used it to lay out the 300 feet of wire. I can pretty much do anything I want with the property behind me.

The land directly in front of me is the best land I have for an antenna. It overlooks the whole area above my house and beyond, nice little hill.

EDIT: For scale I went and got me a GPS measuring app for my phone. It is really cold so I did this fast for a sense of scale:

 

[kilokat7]

Wow, that property has "antenna farm" written all over it

A 500 FT BOG antenna can provide you with some serious DX on medium wave and the lower shortwave bands. Add another BOG wire with a phaser and you'll rule the DX world! I love my Quantum Loop, but it's no comparison to my phased BOG array. Lightning is always a concern for me too, but the wires can be quickly disconnected from my feedpoint when needed. Don't stress about getting wire in the air if your primary interest is MW and the lower SW bands. I do just fine with this setup, even when the wires are covered by two feet of snow. Checkout my Youtube videos if you need more proof of performance

 

[corbintechboy]

Wow, that property has "antenna farm" written all over it

A 500 FT BOG antenna can provide you with some serious DX on medium wave and the lower shortwave bands. Add another BOG wire with a phaser and you'll rule the DX world! I love my Quantum Loop, but it's no comparison to my phased BOG array. Lightning is always a concern for me too, but the wires can be quickly disconnected from my feedpoint when needed. Don't stress about getting wire in the air if your primary interest is MW and the lower SW bands. I do just fine with this setup, even when the wires are covered by two feet of snow. Checkout my Youtube videos if you need more proof of performance

This is very interesting.

I could wire this up and have 2 to cover all(ish) directions. This would make for some awesome AM DX. Of course neither my R75 or any of my other radios are ready for that kind of fun . The R75 would probably handle it and has some tools to make it more fun.

Good Idea! I can even disconnect them when not in use. The prize for this is it don't have to cost much either, makes it easier to explain to the boss .

I might just stick with the radios I have for now (not like I have bad radios here) and setup some stuff with these I never had. I might find that it brings alot more to my knob rotations. I mines well face it, I never had a "proper" antenna fed into the R75. It might all the sudden become a beast that's a fun pleasure to use.

 

[majoco]

What I wouldn't give to have all that space!
I'd be planning a hut in the middle of that big paddock - solar panels of course and run everything from 12volts - gas or kerosene heater - Beverages in all directions with a patch panel to make them into dipoles - big earth mat - the stream should make for good ground conductivity - maybe a nice crank-up tower with an log aperiodic beam on top with a discone and TV antenna - wow, I'm dribbling all over the keyboard.......:roll:

PS - what do you think of the CommRadio CR-1?

 

[ka3jjz]

OK we've pretty much run out of the loop and signal amp topic this started off with - so if you want to continue to discuss BOGs, antenna farms, etc. (and yes, it's a valid discussion) please start a thread in our receive antennas forum

I'll leave this topic open for now to get any other on topic comments and suggestions

Thanks for your cooperation from frigid Bowie

Mike

 

[corbintechboy]

What I wouldn't give to have all that space!
I'd be planning a hut in the middle of that big paddock - solar panels of course and run everything from 12volts - gas or kerosene heater - Beverages in all directions with a patch panel to make them into dipoles - big earth mat - the stream should make for good ground conductivity - maybe a nice crank-up tower with an log aperiodic beam on top with a discone and TV antenna - wow, I'm dribbling all over the keyboard.......:roll:

PS - what do you think of the CommRadio CR-1?

Thanks. I am actually starting to see the possibilities.

The CommRadio is a pretty good radio. It has hung with the R75 pretty much in every instance. When the going gets tough the R75 is a bit of a better rig (PBT and its precise tuning).

Here's what I am thinking. I want to get some sort of erectable pole, see it i can find some sort of crank (connect it to the top of the pole). Connect my coax to the crank and have really long wire in the crank. This would give me the ability to get something up and easily get it down. Keep my wife happy and allow me to play .

I like the idea.

 

[SpectreOZ]

The only fence on my property belongs to a neighboring home. I have none that belong to me.

I am two nights with the wire vs the loop. I am still impressed with the loop.

My apologies I was working on the understanding that the black line represented the border (and thus a fence line) between neighboring properties... any dividing fence is still 50% yours

http://www.m0ukd.com/articles/fence_antenna/