wrote:
On Nov 21, 7:32 pm, Bill Baka wrote:
wrote:
On Nov 21, 4:55 pm, Bill Baka wrote:
Has anyone seen any shortwave radios in cars lately? I remember a few
from across the pond back in the 60's but it seems to have died out as a
fad. I would like to put one in one of my cars rather than a boom box
thing and be able to tune the world from wherever I find myself.
The other advantage is that I can drive to a spot with no power lines
for miles at night to listen relatively static free. I could (in theory)
take a long wire on a fishing pole (28-32AWG?) and put on a disposable
weight and toss it as far as possible into some high trees. Once it is
stuck firmly just back the car up until the whole spool is used up and
connect the car antenna to it.
Anybody tried it or anything like it?
Bill Baka
There is always XM radio. BBC world service all the time, and many
other shortwave stations on a rotating basis.
The point was I want to do my own searching and not listen to some lame
satellite station. I will *never* buy a car that requires me to pay a
satellite station $10 every month.



If you are going to do any SWL with a fixed antenna, there is really
no need to mount it in the car. I have a Welbrook ALA100 that I have
used in the field many times with home brew wire loops.
http://www.lazygranch.com/images/radio/loop1.jpg
Interesting looking setup, could be used as a direction finder too.
I have a marine RDF but it uses a pre-mounted loop-stick in the rotating
antenna. Too bad it cuts off at just over the old 2805 frequencies.
Thanks for the picture.

Bill Baka

I've done NDB DFing with the loop. It works great for that purpose.
However, it is better to use a smaller loop. I find 2ft on a side
works best for DFing. I have a setup with a holder for a compass. That
loop uses copper pipe.

Regarding shortwave radios in the car, the specs on the Sony are
pretty poor. I'm not sure it was targeted for the US market, where
there is little good shortwave to hear, other than VOA. I've seen
people mount those DC to daylight radios in the car under the dash for
shortwave.

That is what turned me off on the Sony, no real specs. What I want may
not exist or may be relegated to an Ebay find. When I see consumer
blather and no real data I turn away.

It's non-critical so I'm not pursuing it that hard.
Bill Baka