On Mon, 5 Apr 2004 14:11:59 -0400, "Robert11"
wrote:

Hello:

Do listening only.

Presntly using a random length wire strung around the 4 sides of my attic
(probably about 40 ft x 25 ft x 40 ft x 25 ft; resultant loop left open at
end)

Works fairly well, but would like to try and do better.
Might bite the bullet this spring, and try putting something outside.

Whatever I try, I want it to be omni-directional, and be fairly broadband in
freq. coverage; say from 500 KHz to 30 MHz.

Hi Bob,

You fail to mention the quality of your receiver, I will proceed as if
it were middle of the road ($200-$400).

Your open loop should be coax fed with a choke at the feed point to
reduce noise from the house coupling in (unless there are noisy
components in the attic).

At the other end of the coax, back at the receiver, you should be
using a tuner to perform matching to DX and rejection of strong AM
stations that can seriously de-sensitize you (this is the hidden DX
killer).

Connect to a suitable ground. This sometimes does wonders for
sensitivity. It also sometimes introduces ground loop problems
(solving those problems is worth while to keep the ground).

You already have "enough" wire. Your future goals should be to move
it away from the house if you suffer noise. You would also stand to
gain if you can elevate it higher. Either way, more wire is unlikely
to bring any fantastic return. This has exceptions, of course, if you
want to try Rhombics, or Beverage Antennas (these require serious real
estate for HF however).

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC