Threw up my first wire antenna

[DennisCA]

Looks like it could be a fun project to make something similar.

I do have an old compound bow in a shed at my parents as well from when I was a kid.

 

[popnokick]

Problem I’ve had … and seen others have as well…. Is arrow getting caught in tree on the way back to the ground.

 

[ka3jjz]

Wire antennas work well on HF, but as you get lower in frequency, they need to get real long to be efficient, and at LW, the lengths can become rather large.

When you get your receiver situation settled down, a lot of MW and LW folks use loops as they are directional, and have much lower noise characteristics than wire antennas. If you decide to get serious in these ranges, these deserve a look. Our wiki has a lot of information on this subject, viz.

Loops - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

I'd recommend bookmarking that for future reference...Mike

 

[DennisCA]

I do know about active loops but that's for the future, I want to experiment with the long wire stuff first, so I can get a good idea of their differences in the end. For sure it might be I end up with a loop eventually, but we'll see.

To get better reception on the lower frequencies I plan to extend the current antenna and drag it off in another direction. I could probably get a really long antenna then that follows the tree line of my yard.

I am looking at ferrite loops too for making my own ununs, 36mm seems to be the largest in stock near me, which is near 1½" I dunno if size matters that much, I've seen mentions of 2" and bigger.

 

[DennisCA]

I have done some further experimentation. The snow is still heavy but it's melting under the stronger sun, should be gone by May.

I got myself a slingshot and increased the heigth of the antenna, I also added another length to it. I used this aerial photo of my house to get an idea of how long it might be. One can also see the shape, a V. I am not sure this is an effective shape. The antenna rises to maybe 5 or 6 meters from the house and possibly a little higher towards the end. It's taller than the house anyway which is 4.5 meters.

I got better reception but not as much more as I thought I would. I believe the V-shape is not very effective. I have a splice in the antenna too, soldered it. Not sure if that does anything.