"Mike Kaliski" wrote in
:

There is nothing inherently wrong with the receiving system you have
decided upon but it will undoubtably overload your receiver with signals
and you will be puzzled as to why the reception seems poorer with more
noise pickup rather than less.


One reason I chose it is that it isn't trying that hard for extreme signal
capture. It appeared to be small, easy to use where I have limited space, and
include a transformer that I have read in numerous places partially solves
one of the main reasons for strongly differing signal strength with
frequency.

As Richard has stated you need some form of preselection to filter out
the unwanted signals before they get into your radio. Basically this is
a tuneable filter which only allows through a single band of frequencies
at a time. The following site explains the essentials.

http://www.dxing.com/tnotes/tnote07.pdf


Looks good, I'm not keen on lots of widgets as it happens, fewer and better
widgets that co-operate well works better for me.

You can buy commercial preselectors but they will probably cost as much
as your radio. As they are generally passive devices built from a set of
switched coils and a variable capacitor they last forever and old ones
do come up from time to time at junk sales and the like. It is possible
to make a simple filter to cover just one or two bands that interest
you.

By all means, try the external antenna system but be prepared to buy a
'better' receiver with front end band pass filters or a preselector.


The pre-selection thing isn't a problem, I can see why that helps, and did so
much earlier than now. The point that disconcerts me strongly is what appears
to be significant difference of opinion between experts, especially when it
applies to things as well established as ground rods. Again, this is why I
won;t just ask questions. Context is clearly everything, so instead I
describe the whole scheme I'm considering. Ultimately it's quicker that way.