short wave antenna

[Stingray66]

Ok look for some advise. I just started the year listening to short wave radio . I bought a Eton Elite Executive radio which I like .
A few months ago a bought a MAL 30 + . Irt work ok as I am receiving a lot.But No air band No Cb . When I pull up the radios Internal antenna and air band come in fine

Found out that the MLA 30 does not pull in air .Looking at the WV601`And it says all band am fm lw sw air . Also look as a jet stream discone antenna
and that say Lw, SW, FM, AM, VHF, UHF, AIR,CB,GMRS .so the question is would I be better with the WV 601 or the discone ?
My gut tells me go with the discone . I am getting a lot from over seas on the MLA 30 BUT I really thing my radio Has much more to bring in.
I did try the long wire and it was not as good as the MLA 30 Plus it took up a lot of space.
Place go easy on me, I am 73 , just getting in to the radio hobby . I just got my GMRS license but I have no radio yet as I am really confused what to get ,
and the repeater thing I really do not understand. My goal is by the end of the year to try to get in to Ham radio
(if I am smart enough )

 

[spongella]

Same age here Stingray66, been a ham/SWL for many decades. Let me see if I can help you. You are entering a wonderful hobby.

A discone antenna is omnidirectional, meaning it receives in all directions. I've had several of them over the years and the frequency range was from 25 - 1000MHZ. They worked well for VHF/UHF reception but not for shortwave. Mine were always mounted outside on the chimney. With VHF/UHF antennas, the higher they are mounted, the better the reception, but only up to a point. There are a number of discone manufacturers like Diamond, which I had. Radio Shack also used to sell them. Price range varies.

Now on to the loop antenna. Loops are bidirectional unlike the omni-directional discone. They receive best in two directions only so for best results, a way to rotate them would give you the most favorable results. I had the W6LVP loop years ago and mounted it outside with a rotator and it worked well. I initially had it mounted inside with decent results and rotated it by hand. Real convenient that was. However, reception was better outside. I used the loop for longwave/medium wave/shortwave reception only as it wasn't designed for higher frequencies.

Note that some loops come with built-in preamps, some without.

I looked at the MLA 30+ specs. Never used one though. Looks like there are two versions, one for up to 30 MHZ, one for up to 180 MHz. The latter would cover the 108 - 136 MHz air band but I am not sure if it'll work. I suggest you go on eham.net, go to the reviews section and see if anyone has reported using that model. You can also look up other user's opinions of different antennas in the Reviews section.

As for air band communications in general, they are very short in length regarding pilot and tower communications so you have to tune around quite a bit and be patient. However there at ATIS (Automated Terminal Information) stations that broadcast continually from some airports, so Google ATIS to see if there are any near you.

Hope this helps. You came to the right place for help as surely others will chime in. Good luck with your new hobby.

 

[W8WCA]

Short version: you really need a HF Antenna and a VHF/UHF Antenna.
Discones are good but not for HF Frequencies.

Use your MLA-30+ Loop for =HF and get a Discone.
You can get a discone that will work down to your CB Band and on up thru VHF & UHF

will be 72 in a couple of months

 

[Stingray66]

Thanks for your reply. I was thinking go keeping the Mal 30 and get a discone too. and see how it goes.
I am surprise how small and how and well this Eton Executive works especially on ham side band. Right now I have on
a bunch of guys from Ecars net on 7255 LSB. As for GMRS looking at the TID Radio TD H 3 amazon has it for 31 bucks.
there is all so a TR H 8 but I am not to suer what is best . Then there are the Baofeng radio but there are so many models
and I get confused and it think I read that they are not FCC approved

 

[EAFrizzle]

Thanks for your reply. I was thinking go keeping the Mal 30 and get a discone too. and see how it goes.
I am surprise how small and how and well this Eton Executive works especially on ham side band. Right now I have on
a bunch of guys from Ecars net on 7255 LSB. As for GMRS looking at the TID Radio TD H 3 amazon has it for 31 bucks.
there is all so a TR H 8 but I am not to suer what is best . Then there are the Baofeng radio but there are so many models
and I get confused and it think I read that they are not FCC approved

It's surprisingly good on HF SSB reception. I have numerous pages of Mil/Gov HF frequencies programmed in.

As far as an improved antenna for the Civil airband and FM BCB, one of the twin-lead dipole from Amazon for home stereos works well at the right price. A discone is overkill just for the Eton, but might be useful for other rigs you have.

For HF, I'm a big fan of loops. Whether small and active or big and passive, i like the way they perform for SWL. Amazon has 3mm mono plug x wire terminal adapters for direct connection of wire antennas. A 50' spool of light gauge speaker wire can be made into a portable loop that will work on the ground or suspended. There are also SMA x 3mm mono adapters for use with an active loop like the MLA-30+. Just use the internal DX/LOCAL switch to stop any overload from strong signals. The same wire terminal x 3mm mono can be used with dipole or long wires. For a long wire, just attach to the positive terminal, and the negative to a ground or counterpoise.


Enjoy your E³. It's a fun radio, and I use mine daily.