Is it ALL frequencies that have the " overload" or just a few??

- try Unclipping the antenna wire & moving it 1/4 inch away from the antenna
( use a string to move it around)

& see if that helps..

Dan


In article , "Dave"
writes:

Subject: Shortwave random-wire antenna question
From: "Dave"
Date: Sat, 3 Apr 2004 13:41:21 -0600

I recently hooked up a thirty-six foot (plus or minus a couple of feet)
piece of four-stranded wire with alligator clip to the internal "whip"
antenna of my portable shortwave receiver, for the extra performance such a
device offered. It works so well that I now cannot usually use my "DX"
setting because of all the background noise (sounds like hundreds of other
broadcasts vying for attention.) I don't know the frequency source of all
this background noise, but would like to filter out as much of it as I can.
One manufacturer of a similar "wind-up" antenna adds a capacitor to the wire
in order to lower the resonance frequency of the wire. If I were going to
try something similar (adding a capacitor, in series) in an attempt to bring
the resonance of the wire down into the 30 MHz range, what size (roughly)
capacitor should I use? Should I just try a few with different ranges, or
does anyone here have any suggestions?

TIA

Cross-posted between sci.electronics.basics and rec.radio.shortwave


Dave