On 28 mar, 15:54, "vangellis" wrote:
Hi.
I'm new to shortwave radio so please bear with me.
I have a Target HF3 receiver (amongst others) that I like to listen to
the Radio Amatuers on.
My antenna at the moment for this radio is a simple 65foot longwire,
that is connected to 50ohm cb coax cable, I have a 50ohm balun in line
and the antenna wire is connected to the one end (the one with a
wingnut on) and the coax is connected via a pl259 plug. I have soldered
a sturdy earth wire on the outer shell of the pl259 and rin it to
ground, that is I have soldered it to the cold water mains input pipe.
Now I was looking at the handbook that came with the HF3 and it states
that the antenna impendance is 75ohm's as it is a simple phono plug on
the back of the radio.
I was wondering if I would get better reception if I took the balun out
altogether and replaced the 50ohm cb coax with tv coax at 75ohm's.
Does anyone have any tips/advise please
thanks
bob

Hello Bob,

For HF, changing to 75 Ohms will not give noticeable improvement.

It is important to also connect the braid to the 3.5mm plug (not to
the center conductor but to the shaft). Grounding the braid outside
your house is OK. It reduces pick-up of interference from other house
hold equipment and (electronic) lighting gear.

I don't know your balun, when it has just one input for the long wire
and a coaxial connection; it is probably just an impedance transformer
(nothing wrong with that).

Make sure that you run your long wire away from sources of
interference.

I checked http://www.mwcircle.org/res-receiver-akd.htm for a review
(Radio Netherlands stopped the receiver reviews). With a 65-foot long
wire, you may experience bad reception because of intermodulation
products (kind of distortion/noise, etc caused by strong transmitters
at other frequencies). Try the attenuator switch on the back of the
receiver, this may give improvement. Best is to let somebody listen
to the receiver that has experience with these types of distortion.

Best regards,

Wim
PA3DJS
www.tetech.nl
remove abc from the mail address.