Mobile Shortwave Antenna???

[Shortwavewave]

Anyone know where i can get one, make, or use other types of antennas for shortwave
recieve only

Sounds funny to some but Ive tryed and i get better reception with the cars antenna than being in the apartment where i live even if i turn EVERYTHING OFF theres so much other interference that its painfull

I want to see if i can get better than the cars antenna
Thank you

 

[Fast1eddie]

Mobile Shortwave

Good one...seeing you want receive only and without knowing your vehicle make, you could install a long cb whip on a ball mount. Consider looking at mono band HF whips for ham radio, and select one closest to your desired monitoring range.

Install a noise filter at the battery, I'd expect you would still get noise from surrounding vehicles and such.

Would hate you see you crash the car as you fine tune military ute transmissions, could see writing that one up on the crash report.

Ed

 

[ka3jjz]

You haven't said anything about what kind of antenna you are using in the apartment; a simple wire thrown around the room will get you started, to be sure, but it will pick up every noise source it can - such as TVs, fish tank heaters, remote thermostats and just about anything else that can generate even a small amount of RF at HF frequencies.

Every situation is different, and may require different solutions, but loops as well as antennas fed through a longwire balun may cut some of that noise down. Loops are an interesting choice - they don't react nearly as much to noise, which is more electrical in nature. There are several homebrew versions that don't cost an arm and a leg. A longwire balun is easy to construct - there are several designs - and there are a few available commercially as well. Not very expensive.

In addition, if you use the Wayback machine to view the site regarding low noise HF loops (put in http://www.greertech.com in the page you want to recover) you will find even more ideas - including a nice relatively small coax loop using about 50 foot of coax that should be well nigh ideal for apartments and such. That loops site has long since disappeared unfortunately but the wayback machine will bring most of what you need back.

In fact I even know more than a few that take their radios on the weekends to a local state park to try to hear the stuff they can't hear at home due to noise and other restrictions. Of course, doing that during the early spring can be quite chilly, hi.

Our Wiki has links for many different kinds of antennas. Time to start reading. 73s Mike

 

[RevGary]

Oops !

I was going to recommend a 50 foot long wire antenna attached to an insullator on your trailer hitch, but those don't work too well in traffic or when making high speed turns... we wipe out more bicycles that way...whew...LOL.

 

[zz0468]

I run HF mobile in the car on the ham bands. The radio I use (Alinco DX-70T) has a general coverage receiver. The antenna is an SGC tuner to a whip... a 20 meter hamstick. The whip is on a ball mount.

When the tuner is turned off, it's in bypass mode, so I can use it for general receiver use. It works pretty good, but requires that I use the radio's internal preamp. the preamp is not necessary when the antenna has been tuned by the SGC, by the way. Reception is best on 20 meters, of course, but with the preamp, it's quite good from the AM broadcast band to 30 MHz.

So... ,my recommendation is to install a full size cb whip on a ball mount. Have a low noise preamp, but not something with more than about 10 db gain. Expect some noise while driving, but if you park in a quiet area, reception can be fantastic.

Do not attempt to operate any kind of receiver while you're driving if the controls take your eyes off the road! I have the separation kit for the DX-70, and the control head mounts above the dash, up front and center. I can look at the radio AND still see the road. Consider getting a rig that allows you to do that. Get your ham license while you're at it, if you haven't already done so, and quadruple your fun.

 

[Fast1eddie]

There ya go!

Ed

 

[gcgrotz]

I use a full sized CB whip too, it works pretty good. I do suffer from some ignition noise but the NB takes out most of it. But I like the long wire idea. Maybe you could put a small kite-like thing to keep it up in the air. Just watch for bridges and power lines.

 

[iMONITOR]

Anyone know where i can get one, make, or use other types of antennas for shortwave
recieve only

Comet UHV-6
http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/hamantm/4289.html

 

[N0RDC]

Chameleon V1L SWL mobile

Use this antenna for my 857d, but does a great job at 1.8-29Mhz.....depemding on the time of day and season....

 

[dmg1969]

Just so you know, you replied to a 7 1/2 year old thread.

 

[N0RDC]

Hmmmm....

I looked forever for an answer to this question when I had a Phillips DC777 cassette player with a full coverage Shortwave receiver in it. That was back in 1995. Now that I have a true hf radio, I have a good hf antenna and tuner to do the job, I thought I would pass on what works in case there are till folks out there with questions.... So yes, I can read letters and numbers...

 

[stiletto]

The thread may be old...But...

Thanks for still posting to it. I Googled and found this thread...I'd like to have an antenna on my Jeep for shortwave listening.