My antenna setup is nothing but a random wire going from a tree/ tuner/ rig
in the basement about 60-70 feet total, I know it could be better but its
all I can get away with for the moment. The ground is a rod thru the bottom
of the sump where is always wet and I feel is good for RF, I hook the end of
that to the back of the random wire tuner.
My concern is...the wire coming from window to tuner/rig is about 15 feet
and due to placement I cant shorten it much more,
Should I use a coax from window to rig?
Or just leave it alone?
BTW I use low power about 30-40 watts CW and the setup seems to work fairly
well on most bands..just concerned about loss and RF inside the shack.
Any input appreciated, and thanks for reading

gil

Same setup I and many others used decades ago. One thing you might consider
doing is to move the tuner to the wall where the antenna enters (sounds
like you're in a basement?). You could adjust the tuner anywhere within
earshot of the rig by using a noise bridge and listening to the noise while
adjusting the tuner. The Palomar Tuner Tuner is made for just this type of
operation. They can be had on the used market for about $60, or you can
build your own. Don't use coax to connect between the tuner output and the
antenna lead. You'll be effectively inserting a large capacitance to
ground.

K8AC

"gil" wrote in message
...
My antenna setup is nothing but a random wire going from a tree/ tuner/
rig
in the basement about 60-70 feet total, I know it could be better but its
all I can get away with for the moment. The ground is a rod thru the
bottom
of the sump where is always wet and I feel is good for RF, I hook the end
of
that to the back of the random wire tuner.
My concern is...the wire coming from window to tuner/rig is about 15 feet
and due to placement I cant shorten it much more,
Should I use a coax from window to rig?
Or just leave it alone?
BTW I use low power about 30-40 watts CW and the setup seems to work
fairly
well on most bands..just concerned about loss and RF inside the shack.
Any input appreciated, and thanks for reading

gil

Gil,
If it's working okay, and it seems to be from what you've
said, then I probably wouldn't bother to change the way you're
feeding your antenna. There are probably several things that
you could do to improve your system, but 15 feet of coax isn't
going to make a lot of difference. But, the nice thing about
it is that you could make the change and see for your self if
there's any big differences (which will depend on the particular
frequency). As for the RF exposure, at 40 watts, it just won't
make any difference at all.
'Doc

I'm surprised no one has suggested a coupling loop. Small loops are
often fed via a smaller loop placed inside the main loop, typically off
center. The impedance match can be effected by adjusting the size and
number of turns of the smaller loop. I believe one of Reg's programs
helps with the design of these.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

On Wed, 30 Jul 2003 11:05:42 -0700, Roy Lewallen wrote:

I'm surprised no one has suggested a coupling loop. Small loops are
often fed via a smaller loop placed inside the main loop, typically off
center. The impedance match can be effected by adjusting the size and
number of turns of the smaller loop. I believe one of Reg's programs
helps with the design of these.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

I'm just curious. Roy? What the heck are you talking about? I mean,
I can see you're talking about feeding a magloop, but what does that have
to do with feeding a random wire from a basement?

Oops. The reason it makes no sense is that I screwed up and posted it to
the wrong thread. Someone was asking about feeding a metal window frame,
and that's what I intended it to refer to.

I apologize for the goof and the confusion it caused.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

Tim Conway wrote:
On Wed, 30 Jul 2003 11:05:42 -0700, Roy Lewallen wrote:


I'm surprised no one has suggested a coupling loop. Small loops are
often fed via a smaller loop placed inside the main loop, typically off
center. The impedance match can be effected by adjusting the size and
number of turns of the smaller loop. I believe one of Reg's programs
helps with the design of these.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL


I'm just curious. Roy? What the heck are you talking about? I mean,
I can see you're talking about feeding a magloop, but what does that have
to do with feeding a random wire from a basement?

On Fri, 01 Aug 2003 11:23:54 -0700, Roy Lewallen wrote:

Oops. The reason it makes no sense is that I screwed up and posted it to
the wrong thread. Someone was asking about feeding a metal window frame,
and that's what I intended it to refer to.

I apologize for the goof and the confusion it caused.

Actually, I wasn't looking for an apology, but for a pointer back to the
thread... it sounded interesting.
Now that I know which thread, I must point out - wouldn't trying to run a
window frame as a magloop be a big dummy load? I'd think he'd be better
off loading it as a capacitative plate. The high currents in a magloop
going around that aluminum, and crossing what are probably just butt
joints, would dissipate nearly all the power as heat.
Now, hanging a
picture in a frame made of copper pipe and feeding that would be a whole
new ball game.

When I first started out, in amateur radio, my antenna was a random wire
about 75 feet long. About 15 ish feet was in the basement and the wire went
though a hole drill through the window frame of the basement window. My
antenna coupler was an L network. My tansmitter was a dx-60 and receiver
was a gr-91, for the first 6 months and then a hr-10 for a few years after
that. I did quite well with that arrangement.
Larry ve3fxq

"gil" wrote in message
...
My antenna setup is nothing but a random wire going from a tree/ tuner/
rig
in the basement about 60-70 feet total, I know it could be better but its
all I can get away with for the moment. The ground is a rod thru the
bottom
of the sump where is always wet and I feel is good for RF, I hook the end
of
that to the back of the random wire tuner.
My concern is...the wire coming from window to tuner/rig is about 15 feet
and due to placement I cant shorten it much more,
Should I use a coax from window to rig?
Or just leave it alone?
BTW I use low power about 30-40 watts CW and the setup seems to work
fairly
well on most bands..just concerned about loss and RF inside the shack.
Any input appreciated, and thanks for reading

gil

When I first stated, I found an old roll of fence wire and ran it out the
window. It was probably 50 feet long and I brought it right into the shack.
I had an old crystal-controlled (7120 Khz and 3740 Khz) homebrew
transmitter my dad built and a Realistic DX-100 (bad bandspread). This was
in 1982 so better stuff was available, I just didn't have any money (I was
15). My dad had let his license lapse back in the 60's when he was a
General. This transmitter was all he had left and the receiver was a
Christmas gift. I used it for about two years and worked all around the
world (upgraded the receiver after about 6 months).

I have found that to an extent, patience and perseverance (and a good
receiver) more than make up for high dollars.

Patrick