I've had my R75 for about 2 years now.
I purchased an Antenna Supermarket dipole, the one with the sealed traps,
for the radio.
Then I went and had the Kiwa mods done.
All in all, a very nice setup. And like everyone says, it's great at
Utility listening.
But lately, I've been wanting to dig out more of those tough foreign country
broadcast signals.
Last night was absolutely horrible for listening to foreign stations. Only
received a
few of the strongest ones that were beamed at N. America. So I figured I'd
try something
different. I took a piece of speaker wire, about 25' long, twisted the 2
wires together at each end, stuck
one end into the R75 longwire input, and threw the rest out of my basement
window (yes my radio is in the
basement). So, I took the remaining 15 feet of wire and looped it into a
bush along the side of my house.
It must be all of 5' off the ground.
Back inside I go, not expecting much from the wire. I tuned to a station I
knew I could receive and voila!
It came in nicely. I switched back and forth from the wire to the dipole
and no difference. Hmmmm, strange!
I tuned in a few other stations that were weaker and again, no difference.
Amazing!
Did I waste my money on the Dipole antenna? I can't imagine what 200' of
wire strung up 25' high in my trees
will sound like.
Now I'm wondering if the Dipole has any advantages over the long wire.
Could some kind soul please explain what is happening?
Any recommendations?
Is there a "SW Antennas for Dummies" site somewhere?
Thank you,
Lenny