Rikk wrote:
"Rikk" wrote in message
...

Hi
I am wondering if I have my longwire set correctly, maybe you could advise
please.
At the moment I have a sloping long-wire of about 50 foot, going from the
top of a mast on my house about 35 foot tall to the top of a washing line
post about 12 foot tall. I have connected the lonwire to my radio by means
of CB-coax, what I have done is to attach the centre core of the coax to
the longwire and I have cut the outer sheath on the coax near to the
ground and connected an earhtwire that is soldered to a cold water main
supply pipe as an earth.
Only the centre wire on the coax is connected to the actual longwire.

Is there a way I could do better.

I am thinking about getting an active antenna, the Sony AN-1

Would this work better for me or is there a better alternative available.
I am running an Icom R72
thanks
Rikk




Hi Guys
Thanks all very much for your help, I appreciate your comments, I have opted
to order a balun from a supplier mention on this thread and see how it goes
from there.
I shall also try a few of your other suggestions as they are really
interesting in therory.
As you can probably see, I am relativly new to sw and until now have been
using the SW77 on it's telescopic antenna, but time for me to move forward a
bit, so I will see what I can do with the R72
thanks again
Rikk
United Kingdom

The antenna configuration you have is similar to a 'sloper' design where
one end is higher than the other. To reduce the reception of noise from
appliances in your home, it's better to locate the balun (unun) near the
ground (earth) instead of in the air at the end of the antenna. This
means you should extend the feed end of the antenna to the ground with a
single vertical wire (not coax) and connect that wire to the high
impedance input of the balun. The low impedance output of the balun goes
to the coax that should run on/in the ground to the house. Having the
balun and coax near the ground will allow you to use a short ground wire
from the balun to a ground rod near by. This helps to keep noise off the
shield of the coax.
This antenna system (inverted-L) works best if both ends of the
horizontal section are located away from the house. In your case you can
make the far end of the antenna at the wash line pole the feed end with
the vertical wire to the balun near the ground. Instead of having the
near end come all the way to the mast on the house, shorten it about
20-ft and install an insulator at that end with some nylon rope to the
mast. This will keep the near end of the antenna away from the house,
where it could pick up noise. The vertical wire at the other end will
make up for shortening the antenna at the house end. It will also help
to receive signals which arrive at the antenna from a low angle to the
horizon.
My antenna is very similar except I installed a 20-ft metal pole on top
of the wooden clothes line pole to make that end higher above ground.
This also makes the vertical wire longer for better reception.