On Sat, 03 Jul 2010 14:52:15 -0400, Bob wrote:

I have a long end fed antenna for my listening.
Obviously they have a short "something" antenna.

How effective is a short "something" around 5 to 10 MHz, e.g. ?

How can it work down there at all ?

I can visualize s tuned ferrite loop, such as the very old fashioned AM
table radios used to have, but wouldn't this only be effective over a
very small range ?

Hi Bob,

A make and model number would get you a more definitive answer.
However, for the broader question, and as you undoubtedly expect, more
antenna is better - to a point. Some will argue, theoretically,
otherwise. I go with results.

When I was in South Africa (no, not the World Cup), I took along one
of Radio Shack's cheapest SW radios. It had the conventional whip,
and it offered the conventional whimp. However, having foresight, I
also took along about 20 feet of wirewrap wire with a quarter taped
onto one end. At the close of day, I would wrap one end around the
shortened whip and I would toss the quarter into the rafters (we
stayed in thatched covered huts), all of a ten or fourteen foot
height; and signals came booming in from all over the continent and
Europe.

Another thing missing from these small jobs are a tuned front end. In
fact, you can spend a lot of money on SW radios and still not get
front end tuning. A preselector, or simple antenna tuner (as cheap as
one as you can find, or build one for $10) will go far, far, far.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC