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Old June 7th 04, 02:28 AM
Hidalgo
 
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Default Newbie SWL question: Antenna geometry

Is the length or the shape of the antenna more important?

I live in an apartment and can't put up an outside antenna. The Grundig
YB400PE I just bought came with one of those little wire antennas that winds
up. You attach one end to something, and spool out the antenna to the radio.
It works, but no so well.

I was thinking of making my own antenna out of some wire, but my apartment
is of limited size. So, I was wondering if I could run it around the outline
of the apartment. Maybe up at the junction of the wall and ceiling, hidden
in the "joint" there. But then I got to wondering if that would defeat the
purpose. Wouldn't a straight line antenna work best? And wouldn't the
antenna work best it was was parallel to the "line" upon which the signal
propagates?

Sorry is these are dumb questions. I bought the antenna to entertain myself
during the recovery period after an upcoming surgery and I want the best
possible reception.

Thanks in advance.


  #2   Report Post  
Old June 7th 04, 04:54 AM
yea right
 
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On Sun, 06 Jun 2004 18:28:08 -0700, Hidalgo wrote:

Is the length or the shape of the antenna more important?

snip
Sorry is these are dumb questions. I bought the antenna to entertain
myself during the recovery period after an upcoming surgery and I want the
best possible reception.


Some people have used what you described with great success. There are
some alternatives though...

Active antenna. Also there are some nice active loop antennas.

Some people have had luck throwing a thin wire out the window or conncting
to the eve or rain trough of a building.

There are no rules in an apt building as far as antennas go. whatever
works, works, and if it does not, try something else.
  #3   Report Post  
Old June 7th 04, 10:39 AM
RHF
 
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HIDALGO,

For the Grundig Yacht Boy 400 PE Radio here are Two In-Door
"Hidden" SWL Antenna Ideas:

FIRST - In-Door Random Wire Antenna for the YB400.
- Place one Push-Pin at the Ceiling Level directly
above the YB400.
- Next place a Push-Pin in each corner of the room at
Ceiling Level
- Leave One Foot of spare-extra Wire at the YB400.
Run/Route the White "Insulated Wrapping Wire" from the
YB400 up to the Ceiling and wrap one turn of the wire
around the Push-Pin. Continue the Wire on to the next
corner Push-Pin and wrap one turn of the wire around
the Push-Pin. Complete the routing of the Wire until
you have circled the room or ran out of wire.
- Connect the Wire to the Grundig Yacht Boy 400 PE's Whip Antenna.
NOTE: Collapse the Whip Antenna and connect the Wire directly
to the Tip of the Whip Antenna.
PARTS Required: { Cost Under $5 }
* RadioShack Catalog #: 278-502 White 30 AWG Kynar
Wire Length 50 FT (15.2m)
* Five (5) Push-Pins (Use Plastic Push-Pins -
NOT Metal Thumb Tacks.)
TBL: This makes a fairly good In-Door "HIDDEN" Random
{Folded} Wire Antenna.

SECOND - In-Door [HIDDEN] "Around-the-Room" Horizontal
Loop Wire Antenna..
- Using a Twin Lead as a 'balanced' Antenna Lead-In-Line.
- Remove about 2" of the flat center insulation from
the one end of the Twin Lead. Strip about 1" of Insulation
from the two conductors at this end of the Twin Lead.
Spread these two Leads apart like Arms to Form a "T";
this is your Top-T-End of the Twin Lead.
- Next remove about 1" of the flat center insulation
from the other end of the Twin Lead. Strip about 1/2" of
Insulation from the two conductors at this end of the Twin
Lead. This is your Bottom-End of the Twin Lead.
- Attach the Top-T-End of the Twin Lead using three
Push-Pins at the Ceiling Level directly above the Grundig
Yacht Boy 400 PE.
One Push-Pin under each Arm of the "T" (about 2" apart)
and one about 2" down the Twin Lead.
- Connect (twist) one of the exposed Twin Lead Wires
to the White "Insulated Wrapping Wire" and wrap one turn
of the wire around the Push-Pin. . Run/route the Wire
to the next corner Push-Pin and wrap one turn of the wire
around the Push-Pin. Complete the routing of the Wire
until you have circled the room, and returned to the
Twin Lead. Connect (twist) the other exposed Twin Lead
Wires to the White "Insulated Wrapping Wire" and wrap one
turn of the wire around the other Push-Pin.
(This 'completes' your Loop Antenna Element.)
- Connect (Soldier) the Bottom-End of the Twin Lead to the
an 1/8" Mono Plug.
- Plug the 1/8" Plug into the External Antenna Jack of
the Grundig Yacht Boy 400 PE.
PARTS Required: { Cost Under $5 }
* Six to Eight Feet piece of Clear TV type 300 Ohm Twin Lead
* RadioShack Catalog #: 278-502 White 30 AWG Kynar
Wire Length 50 FT (15.2m)
* * If this does not have to be a [Hidden] Wire then
#24 Stranded Hook-Up Wire will work OK.
* Seven (7) Push-Pins (Use Plastic Push-Pins -
NOT Metal Thumb Tacks.)
* 1/8" Mono Plug.

TBL: This makes a fairly good In-Door [HIDDEN]
"Around-the-Room" Horizontal Loop Wire Antenna.

Since you have a Grundig Yacht Boy 400PE, you may be interested
in the Grundig Yacht Boy "YB" Radios eGroup on YAHOO !
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Grundig-Yacht-Boy-Radios/

iane ~ RHF
..
Some Say: On A Clear Day You Can See Forever.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortw...na/message/502
I BELIEVE: On A Clear Night...
You Can Hear Forever and Beyond - The Beyond !
..
..
= = = "Hidalgo" wrote in message
= = = news:BwPwc.24572$My6.21049@fed1read05...
Is the length or the shape of the antenna more important?

I live in an apartment and can't put up an outside antenna. The Grundig
YB400PE I just bought came with one of those little wire antennas that winds
up. You attach one end to something, and spool out the antenna to the radio.
It works, but no so well.

I was thinking of making my own antenna out of some wire, but my apartment
is of limited size. So, I was wondering if I could run it around the outline
of the apartment. Maybe up at the junction of the wall and ceiling, hidden
in the "joint" there. But then I got to wondering if that would defeat the
purpose. Wouldn't a straight line antenna work best? And wouldn't the
antenna work best it was was parallel to the "line" upon which the signal
propagates?

Sorry is these are dumb questions. I bought the antenna to entertain myself
during the recovery period after an upcoming surgery and I want the best
possible reception.

Thanks in advance.

  #4   Report Post  
Old June 7th 04, 11:16 AM
Diverd4777
 
Posts: n/a
Default


Length:
Longer is better..

here's a Stealth apartment Antenna & Instructions on how to build one...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

MATERIALS

Some Stranded, Insulated copper wire from Radio shack
Colors so it matches the bricks / outside of your building

Some stick-on Cord holders
One tube clear Silicone sealer glue
A roll of Duct tape color of outside of apt.

One Mop / Long Pole
One piece of twine or string.
One Small soft edged weight.

PROCEDU

See how far it is in between two windows of your Apt..

Measure out a piece of string this distance + ~ 6 - 8 feet.
Attach a small soft edged weight to it.

( Look Outside to see no one is looking !! )

Secure curious household pets

Open Both Windows.
Insert mop part way out one]
Close that window to secure mop handle

Run over to the other window QUICK!
Take the twine with the weight on it & (without risking life & limb)
Toss the string over the mop sticking out the other window.
Secure the end of that end of the string with a bit of slack
Close that window
Run over to the other window with the mop that has the twine handing down off
it

Pull the mop in
Close the window.

( Breath deeply )

NOW....

Attach the stranded wire to the end of the string.
Slightly open window
Run over to the oher window.
Open it & pull in string until wire / string connection is through..

Pull in enough so that wire will reach SWR
Attach wire to SWR.
Close window.

- That's basically it. Modify as needed.

You can take Square stick -on cord holders
Camouflage them with magic Marker color , &
Silicone glue them to the outside corners of the window,
Then loop more wire

( DONT FALL OUT WHEN DOING THIS !!)

around the cord holders. This makes the antenna longer.
repeat for other windows..This should help lots..

( Works for me !!)




In article BwPwc.24572$My6.21049@fed1read05, "Hidalgo"
writes:

Subject: Newbie SWL question: Antenna geometry
From: "Hidalgo"
Date: Sun, 6 Jun 2004 18:28:08 -0700

Is the length or the shape of the antenna more important?

I live in an apartment and can't put up an outside antenna. The Grundig
YB400PE I just bought came with one of those little wire antennas that winds
up. You attach one end to something, and spool out the antenna to the radio.
It works, but no so well.

I was thinking of making my own antenna out of some wire, but my apartment
is of limited size. So, I was wondering if I could run it around the outline
of the apartment. Maybe up at the junction of the wall and ceiling, hidden
in the "joint" there. But then I got to wondering if that would defeat the
purpose. Wouldn't a straight line antenna work best? And wouldn't the
antenna work best it was was parallel to the "line" upon which the signal
propagates?

Sorry is these are dumb questions. I bought the antenna to entertain myself
during the recovery period after an upcoming surgery and I want the best
possible reception.

Thanks in advance.




  #5   Report Post  
Old June 8th 04, 01:41 AM
GO BEARCATS
 
Posts: n/a
Default

For the Grundig Yacht Boy 400 PE Radio here are Two In-Door
"Hidden" SWL Antenna Ideas:


***********rest snipped********

Hidalgo,
Those are good ideas that were mentioned. I might add, and this is cheap also.

Get you a pack of "cup hook assortments", you can get them ANYWHERE for about
$1.29 (that's how much mine were.) There are different colors and style but
they're all c-shaped screw in the wall hooks -like to hhok a cup onto.-

Pick the nicest looking ones out of your package, they have like seven-ten
choices x eight different styles to choose from.

Go directly above your main listening area and screw one of those as high as
you can to the ceiling and space them out to run as much wire as you want or
need.

It really beats the 'push in pins' or thumbtacks or anything like that because
they'll pop out on you and if you've just had surgery you're not going to want
to have to deal with that.

This way, YOU pick the color and style, they all look nice and once they're
screwed into the wall- they're not going anywhere (until you unscrew it out)
and it'll hold the wire until YOU take it out.

Good luck on the surgery and the antenna project. :-) Can't go wrong with the
cup hooks.


~^Monitoring The Spectrum^~
Hammarlund HQ129X /Heathkit Q Multiplier
Hammarlund HQ140X
Multiple GE P-780's(GREAT BCB Radios)
RCA Victor *Strato- World*
RCA Victor RJC77W-K(Walnut Grain)
1942 Zenith Wave Magnet 6G 601M
Cathedral/ Ross#2311/Rhapsody-MultiBand
DX100/*SUPER-DELUXE Mod- DRIVEN*394/*Modded*398/399/402
OMGS Transistor Eight/Realistic 12-1451
Henry Kloss Model One/Bell+HowellSW
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Alpha Delta DX Sloper 57ft.
500ft. 12AWG. (non-terminated)
120ft. 12 AWG Long-Wire
2 Radio Shack Loop Antennas
Radio Shack Amplified Antenna
30X30 DiamondLoop(six section 830pf Cap)
* Diamond Loop mounted to Lazy Susan TurnTable*
*21/2X2ft.FiveSpoked~Penta-Loop~PancakeLoop*
~OptimusCTR-111Cassettte Recorder~
~Radio Shack 2Speed VOX#43-476~
~Ramsey Speech Scrambler~







  #6   Report Post  
Old June 8th 04, 03:47 AM
Nicolae Santean
 
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Default

*** post for FREE via your newsreader at post.newsfeed.com ***

A slinky works as well. I personally have 4 slinkies serialized (they have a
grip at each end, which make it easy to attach one to another) and suspended
on a rope across the ceiling of my room, in front of the window. This way, I
have about 80m of wire fit on a 5m rope (a spiral neatly spaced at 1cm
step). It works quite good for general broadcast listening : Romania,
Bulgaria, Vatican, Turkey, India, China, Vietnan, Netherlands, Sweden ,
Spain, Cuba, Slovakia, Ucraine, Serbia, South Korea, Russia, ... and the
list goes on. I should start collecting QSL cards :-)

The secret to this indoor loaded inverted L antenna is to place a
counterpoise under your bed: about 5m of wire laying down on the floor and
connected to the grounding of your receiver.

This solution stands up in my case, after trying many loop antennas for HF.
It works quite well, and it eliminates the burden of fine tuning the antenna
for each frequency. I really recommend it for SWL.

Yours cordially,

Nic.
http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~nic/radio/radio.shtml

"Hidalgo" wrote in message
news:BwPwc.24572$My6.21049@fed1read05...
Is the length or the shape of the antenna more important?

I live in an apartment and can't put up an outside antenna. The Grundig
YB400PE I just bought came with one of those little wire antennas that

winds
up. You attach one end to something, and spool out the antenna to the

radio.
It works, but no so well.

I was thinking of making my own antenna out of some wire, but my apartment
is of limited size. So, I was wondering if I could run it around the

outline
of the apartment. Maybe up at the junction of the wall and ceiling, hidden
in the "joint" there. But then I got to wondering if that would defeat the
purpose. Wouldn't a straight line antenna work best? And wouldn't the
antenna work best it was was parallel to the "line" upon which the signal
propagates?

Sorry is these are dumb questions. I bought the antenna to entertain

myself
during the recovery period after an upcoming surgery and I want the best
possible reception.

Thanks in advance.






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