The antenna does indeed seem to be working great, and the radio is not
operating too shabily either as it is only the "background noise" I am
trying to reduce. I hooked a 100 mH RF choke up to it with good results,
and am planning on adding another one or two similar devices in an effort to
cut down on higher frequency interference. Question: how would I ground
this antenna? I have a grounding rod right outside the window, but don't
know what to hook it too. The negative battery terminal? This radio does
have an external antenna input, but that has a plastic ring around the
outside. Open to suggestions. And thanks for the input RE purchasing a
new/used tuner.

dave


"Private" wrote in message
om...
Dave,

I have been in a very similar situation. I used almost an identical
antenna and had fantastic results. The radio likely does not have
sufficent filtering in this case (Antenna is likely working great). I
would start by ensuring the antenna has a good ground connection to
the radio.

An antenna tuner/preselector would defantely help. Purchasing a new
or used amateur radio tuner (i.e. MFJ) 1.8Mhz-30Mhz would be the
easiest option. Adding capacitors separetely could work, but from
experience is a challenge to achive an workable solution for all
frequencies.

Homac


"Dave" wrote in message
...
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