My First SW Radio and Antenna. A Couple of Questions. (Photos)

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scloyd

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I forgot to add that where the garden spigot is, at one time many years ago was a coal chute. I can drill a hole there and run a ground wire into the basement and connect it to a water pipe.
 

ridgescan

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Right now I have a coax cable connected from the 9:1 (outside) running into the house connected to the SW Ext. Ant. lug on the back of my radio. I put the jumper wire back onto the two lugs on the 9:1. I had a ground wire running from the 9:1 down the side of the house to a ground rod. That ground rod is on the opposite side of the house where my electric service ground rod is. I don't think this new ground rod is any help. Near the new ground rod is my garden spigot which I can ground the 9:1 to that. (see pic)

View attachment 89635
The ground rod in this picture is the ground rod I installed.

Sorry if this sounds confusing. I tried to explain it as simple as possible. Lol.
Give that pipe in your pic a shot. That will be a far better ground situation than the rod (provided it's not PVC piping behind the spigot)
Who knows what the water content in your soil there is and that rod may not have grabbed into enough of it; whereas that water pipe, if connected to the vast metal piping system throughout your home will at least be a hell of a counterpoise to the antenna wire.
The experiment continues:)
 

scloyd

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Give that pipe in your pic a shot. That will be a far better ground situation than the rod (provided it's not PVC piping behind the spigot)
Who knows what the water content in your soil there is and that rod may not have grabbed into enough of it; whereas that water pipe, if connected to the vast metal piping system throughout your home will at least be a hell of a counterpoise to the antenna wire.
The experiment continues:)
I recently replaced all of the wood where the coal chute was and I then had a plumber install the new spigot. The spigot is all copper. I think I'm going to drill a small hole and run a wire inside and ground it to the pipe in the basement.

Does it matter if I use solid wire or stranded for the ground? I was using stranded because that' what I had.

Thank you for your help. Much appreciated.
 

ridgescan

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I recently replaced all of the wood where the coal chute was and I then had a plumber install the new spigot. The spigot is all copper. I think I'm going to drill a small hole and run a wire inside and ground it to the pipe in the basement.

Does it matter if I use solid wire or stranded for the ground? I was using stranded because that' what I had.

Thank you for your help. Much appreciated.
I don't think it would matter with either since your ground points will be indoors. If your ground wire was to be outside in the weather I would not have used stranded only because the strands would be subject to corrosion whereas solid really stands up to weather.
My 100' endfed SW antenna wire is #12 solid bare copper. Been up there in the salty Frisco weather for years and will not give in.
But please make your wire to the pipe at least #10AWG, preferably #6. With ground wire, the thicker the better for reliable ground contact.
Heck I've even used the center conductor of some crap Radio Shack RG8 coax as a ground line because although it was a poor-quality feed line for my radios, that thick stranded center conductor was great as ground line.
 

scloyd

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Northern, Illinois
I don't think it would matter with either since your ground points will be indoors. If your ground wire was to be outside in the weather I would not have used stranded only because the strands would be subject to corrosion whereas solid really stands up to weather.
My 100' endfed SW antenna wire is #12 solid bare copper. Been up there in the salty Frisco weather for years and will not give in.
But please make your wire to the pipe at least #10AWG, preferably #6. With ground wire, the thicker the better for reliable ground contact.
Heck I've even used the center conductor of some crap Radio Shack RG8 coax as a ground line because although it was a poor-quality feed line for my radios, that thick stranded center conductor was great as ground line.
Okay. I have an update.

The new Flex Weave wire is up running 85' from the house (14' up) to the tree (19' up). I have a coax running from the 9:1 transformer to the radio. The jumper wire that came installed to the 9:1 is in place. Before I was able to run a ground wire, reception was pretty good and I'm pleased with the results. I installed a #8 solid copper ground wire down to my ground rod and started picking AM radio stations from Chicago (60 miles away) from 2000kHz past 5000 kHz. I'm picking up more than one AM station at a time...very annoying. Is this what is known as overload? I haven't had an oppurtunity to ground the wire to a water pipe yet. Not sure if it will make a difference.

So, for now I have the ground wire disconnected from the 9:1 transformer.

One more thing before I forget. I have been using my radio with batteries and not the AC adapter. Does batteries or AC adapter make a difference?

Thanks all in advance for your help and comments.
 

WA8ZTZ

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The AM stations you are hearing may or may not be overload. Perhaps it is mixing caused by something you did when you added the ground wire. A loose, corroded, or dissimilar metal joint can introduce mixing products in your receiver. The whole topic of external mixing can get really interesting but is too complicated to fully cover here. Either way, whether overload or mixing or maybe something else, it apparently was caused by adding the ground wire because you said reception was fine before adding the ground wire. So, remove the ground wire. My matching transformer has no ground wire attached and the antenna works fine. btw... Be aware lightning protection grounding is another matter.

As far as running on batteries, that is usually best. The batteries provide pure DC whereas many AC adapters can introduce noise.
 
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