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Old December 27th 03, 04:34 AM
David Mills
 
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Default Got a new sw radio.. and reception comments and questions!

Hey folks,

I got a new Grundig YB PE 300 shortwave radio for Christmas! (yeah!).
The radio comes with an external antenna jack and an external antenna that
is approximately 17 feet long.

Questions:
Does it/should it matter which direction the ext antena goes? also would a
longer antenna be better?
So far..the external antenna does not seem to be making much difference..but
not experimented much with it yet.

Should the antenna be mostly outdoors or is indoors good enough?

OTherwise..i am real happy with radio.. have already gotten readio Bulgaria
(in french), Taiwan and radio Netherlands (in English) and Radio France (in
french).

I read a post here a while back pondering weather short wave was dead or
dying in the us. No it flourishes..but knowing a foreign language really
helps..or to put another way.. knowing only the english language and none
other is definitely limiting!

David


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Old December 27th 03, 04:39 AM
Macman
 
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The only advise I give is the one I received when posting a similar question
.. . . Go high, go far!

Good luck and kudo's on the new rig!

Todd
KB3KNV


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Old December 27th 03, 05:49 AM
Tony Meloche
 
Posts: n/a
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David Mills wrote:

Hey folks,

I got a new Grundig YB PE 300 shortwave radio for Christmas! (yeah!).
The radio comes with an external antenna jack and an external antenna that
is approximately 17 feet long.

Questions:
Does it/should it matter which direction the ext antena goes? also would a
longer antenna be better?



Assuming it is essentially a straight piece of wire, no - it doesn't
matter,for the horizontal (N,W,E,S) direction. Vertically, get as much
of the wire as high as you can. Along the wall-ceiling juncture until it
makes the drop to your radio is best. If you can do that on the second
floor of a two-story house, so much the better.


also would a
longer antenna be better?



Likely, yes - but if you want to try it, start with a piece of wire
exactly twice as long. After that, experiment at will. If the supplied
antenna
has a jack on the end, use a similar jack on your homemade if you can.


So far..the external antenna does not seem to be making much difference..but
not experimented much with it yet.

Should the antenna be mostly outdoors or is indoors good enough?



Indoors is OK, if you get it as high as you can. If you decide to try a
much longer antenna, outdoors is best - but I use a 110' longwire
configuration
done entirely first-floor indoors, because I have no other choice - I
get excellent performance (regular reception of 1kW stations from all
over South America, for example, and, regularly, Hawaii and Australia
solid and clear).
But outdoors gets you further away from ambient indoor interference, and
gives you the opportunity for longer and higher wires - always better.



OTherwise..i am real happy with radio.. have already gotten readio Bulgaria
(in french), Taiwan and radio Netherlands (in English) and Radio France (in
french).



Half of good catches on SW is your radio/antenna combination, and the
other half is your *experience* with that radio/antenna combination.
Keep in touch and let us know how you're doing.

Tony


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Old December 27th 03, 06:03 AM
Tony Meloche
 
Posts: n/a
Default

David:

The Yacht Boy 300 is a fine portable SW - in it's price and feature
range, probably one of the top ten in the world. But regardless of the
antenna, it simply won't give the performance of a Drake, Yaesu, Icom,
etc. That's a different league. I think you knew that fully well
already, but I wanted to be sure to make that clear. I don't know what
you were using before, but with
time, practice, and the supplied external antenna, you'll likely better
it with the Grunding. One step at a time.

Tony


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Old December 27th 03, 09:54 AM
H Davis
 
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Default

David:

I'm almost as new as you are with this type of radio. Many of these guys
have been at it so long that they will give you a few generalities, but they
sometimes forget to warn you about a few things. Using the antenna in the
house may work for houses with wooden siding, but when you have aluminum or
any metal siding, you are going to have problems. My experience says you
have to go above the metal siding to do any good. In my case, its too late
in the year to string wire antenna from the trees around the house. I did
put a straight wire antenna in the attic with decent results; i.e., much
better than the reel antenna and the whip.

Also, where are you locating your "shack" in the house? Mine is in the
basement. Let's see, in the basement and behind metal siding. Big problems!
So for me (and until spring when I can get something in the trees) the attic
wire will have to do. I didn't know where to attach the downlead or what
kind of downlead to attach. I finally just went with a downlead of the
coaxial cable I use to bring cable tv into the house. The only reason for
that is that I already had some strung up into the attic. I soldered the
center conductor of the coax to the end of the 40 foot wire I strung to the
rafters in the attic. Maybe it should have been attached to the middle of
the single strand #14 insulated wire. I suspect the coax isn't the best kind
because there appears to be a lot of noise on some of the lower frequencies,
but its better than it was when I just tossed about 25 feet lamp up in the
tree next to my basement window, put an alligator clip on the end, and
attached it to my whip antenna.

David, I suspect what all this radio stuff is about is experimentation. And
the experimentation is with various ways of building and hooking up
antennas. This stuff can be alluring and confounding. I should have started
this hobby when I was much younger.

Harlan


"David Mills" wrote in message
link.net...
Hey folks,

I got a new Grundig YB PE 300 shortwave radio for Christmas! (yeah!).
The radio comes with an external antenna jack and an external antenna that
is approximately 17 feet long.

Questions:
Does it/should it matter which direction the ext antena goes? also would

a
longer antenna be better?
So far..the external antenna does not seem to be making much

difference..but
not experimented much with it yet.

Should the antenna be mostly outdoors or is indoors good enough?

OTherwise..i am real happy with radio.. have already gotten readio

Bulgaria
(in french), Taiwan and radio Netherlands (in English) and Radio France

(in
french).

I read a post here a while back pondering weather short wave was dead or
dying in the us. No it flourishes..but knowing a foreign language really
helps..or to put another way.. knowing only the english language and none
other is definitely limiting!

David






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Old December 27th 03, 02:27 PM
Diverd4777
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Hi Hiker David

- Congratulations on your GrundigYB 300 ( Yeah !! )

I occasionally take one SWR out whilst hiking here in the N.E.; near NYC

use it with headphones as not to scare the Deer / other hikers.

.. No RFout there , works pretty good !
wrote down a bunch of catches once;
some quite far away; & just off the whip & Headphone chord ( which Also acts as
an antenna).


Questions:
Does it/should it matter which direction the ext antena goes? also would a
longer antenna be better?

North / South is a good choice; or whatever layout you can use..

So far..the external antenna does not seem to be making much difference..but
not experimented much with it yet.


A Double in length gives you about a 3db ( Barely audible) change;
- so more than double is usually better;
I have over 100, works fine for me !

Should the antenna be mostly outdoors or is indoors good enough?

Away from electrical stuff is usually best, & that means outdoors or at least
taped to the window glass.. Outside is better.

instructions:

( See below)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~
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
One black magic marker
One Rusty red magic marker
A roll of Duct tape color of outside of apt.

One Mop
One piece of twine or string.

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.
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.
NOW
Attach stranded wire to the end of the string.
Slightly open window
Run over to other 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 Markers, &
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 !!)

~ Dan ~

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Old January 4th 04, 12:04 PM
R Vijay
 
Posts: n/a
Default

On Sat, 27 Dec 2003 02:54:26 -0600
"H Davis" hdavis@(no spam)ntsource.com wrote:


David, I suspect what all this radio stuff is about is
experimentation. And the experimentation is with various ways
of building and hooking up antennas. This stuff can be alluring
and confounding. I should have started this hobby when I was
much younger.

Harlan



I was onto SW in my late teens quite a bit in India. Never had an
external antenna. Even with my internal antenna I got so many
Stations/programs clearly that I couldn't listen to them all.

Vijay
  #8   Report Post  
Old January 4th 04, 12:05 PM
R Vijay
 
Posts: n/a
Default

On Sat, 27 Dec 2003 03:34:25 GMT
"David Mills" wrote:

Hey folks,

I read a post here a while back pondering weather short wave
was dead or dying in the us. No it flourishes..but knowing a
foreign language really helps..or to put another way.. knowing
only the english language and none other is definitely
limiting!

David



Thanks for this post. I was the one who asked this question.

Vijay
  #9   Report Post  
Old January 4th 04, 05:13 PM
RHF
 
Posts: n/a
Default

DM,

IIRC: The Grundig Yacht Boy 300 PE comes with a Roll-Up type
Portable Shortwave Antenna (PWA) like the one sold by RadioShack.

RadioShack Catalog # 278-1374
http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...%5Fid=278-1374

First, the PWA can be Clipped directly to the End of the Grundig
Yacht Boy 300 PE's Whip Antenna.

Or, the PWA can be Plugged into the External Antenna Jack on
the side of the Grundig Yacht Boy 300 PE.

? How are you connecting your PWA to your Grundig Yacht Boy 300 PE ?

TIP: Try connecting the PWA to the Grundig Yacht Boy 300 PE using
both ways an find out what works best for you and your circumstances.

* Usually these PWAs are used InDoors and NOT OutSide.

* Sometimes the PWAs are used OutSide as Temporary Antennas,
or as Travel Antennas.

* Generally when the PWA is used InDoors the Wire is run/route
"UP" (Vertically) to the Level of the rooms's Ceiling and then
"OUT" (Horizontally) around the perimeter of the Ceiling until
the PWA's Wire is fully extended.

NOTE: Leave about One Foot of the PWA's Wire "Free" next to the
Grundig Yacht Boy 300 PE; so that you are able to move the Radio
around a little without haveing to make changes in the PWA.

HOW TO: Use an "OutSide" External Antenna with the Grundig Yacht
Boy 300 PE. Most small 'portable' single conversion Shortwave
Radios like the Grundig Yacht Boy 300 PE can be OverLoaded by
an External Antenna if the External Antenna is to long.

Here are a few "OutSide" External Antenna options to consider
using with the the Grundig Yacht Boy 300 PE:

* Three Ways to Use the "Portable Wire Antenna" (PWA)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SWL-AM...na/message/306

* The Classic simple "Random" Wire Antenna
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SWL-AM...na/message/465

* IMPROVING on the Classic simple "Random" Wire Antenna
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SWL-AM...na/message/466

* Building 9:1 Matching Transformer for the
Improved Classic simple "Random" Wire Antenna
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SWL-AM...na/message/467


ALTERNATIVES: If You are Restricted from having a "Visable"
OutSide Antenna then consider one of these [Hidden] Antennas:

* "Field" Antenna and Ground for the Grundig S350 "Field" Radio
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SWL-AM...na/message/286

* Another: [Hidden] "On-the-Fence" Random Wire Antenna
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SWL-AM...na/message/411

* On-The-Fence: A (Hidden) Random Wire Antenna
+ + + Landscaping Lighting Cable
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SWL-AM...na/message/182

* A Compilation "In-the-ATTIC" Antennas
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SWL-AM...na/message/426

* Ground Level (Hidden) Antennas . . .
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SWL-AM...na/message/146

* Two InDoor "Hidden" SWL Antenna Ideas
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SWL-AM...na/message/209


GRUNDIG YACHT BOY RADIOS: Since you have a Grundig Yacht Boy 300 PE
Radio. You may wish to consider taking a look at and Joining the
Grundig Yacht Boy Radio eGroup on YAHOO !

GoTo= http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Grundig-Yacht-Boy-Radios/


iane & yilgr ~ RHF
..
..
= = = "David Mills"
= = = wrote in message hlink.net...

Hey folks,

I got a new Grundig YB PE 300 shortwave radio for Christmas! (yeah!).
The radio comes with an external antenna jack and an external
antenna that is approximately 17 feet long.

Questions:
Does it/should it matter which direction the ext antena goes?
also would a longer antenna be better?
So far..the external antenna does not seem to be making much
difference..but not experimented much with it yet.

Should the antenna be mostly outdoors or is indoors good enough?

OTherwise..i am real happy with radio.. have already gotten
readio Bulgaria (in french), Taiwan and radio Netherlands
(in English) and Radio France (in french).

I read a post here a while back pondering weather short wave
was dead or dying in the us. No it flourishes..but knowing a
foreign language really helps..or to put another way.. knowing
only the english language and none other is definitely limiting!

David

..

..
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