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#1
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Receiver dipole vs 23 ft wire for HF
Shortwave radio manufacturers offer little 23 ft wire antennas on a
reel. See, e.g.: http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/sw_ant/3184.html If I put another 23 ft wire to the radio ground and run it off as closely s possible to 180 degrees away from the first wire, will this necessarily (likely?) improve reception? Ken KC2JDY Ken (to reply via email remove "zz" from address) |
#2
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Ken, KC2JDY wrote:
"If I put another 23 ft wire to the radio ground and run it off as closely as possible to 180 degrees away from the first wire, will this necessarily (likely?) improve reception?" Short answer: Not likely. Regardless of transmitter antenna polarization, received signal reflected by the ionosphere has random polarization. About equal amounts of vertical and horizontal polarization are available for reception. It`s the way the ionosphere works. It`s advantageous to use horizontal polarization in a receiving antenna for ionospheric signals. It`s because horizontally polarized antennas reject vertically polarized signals and it`s said that most noise is vertically polarized. That`s largely because there is no ground wave propagation of horizontally polarized signals. The ground reflection of a tangential wave has the opposite polarity to the incident wave. The sum of the direct wave and the reflected wave along the surface of the earth is very nearly zero for horizontal polarization. A vertically polarized incident wave and its reflection are "head to tail" like flashlight batteries and this is obviously constructive rather than destructive. Even so, the earth is lossy at high frequencies. Received vertically polarized signals come from afar via the ionosphere or via line of sight. Some ground wave propagation exists but it`s very poor. Received horizontally polarized signals come from afar or from very near because the earth treats them so badly. No ground wave exists for them. Excluding vertically polarized signal reception excludes nearly all out of sight signals except those reflected by the ionosphere at shortwave frequencies. Noise is worse the closer it occurs to the receiver. Noise from a distance is weaker, in general. Horizontal polarization is a noise suppressor. A balanced antenna system is a noise suppressor for much the same reason that a balanced transmission line is a noise suppressor. To the extent that noise induces a common-mode signal on both wires, it balances out in the receiver provided the receiver is not unbalanced. The problem with adding a balance wire to the ground side of the receiver input is that it is likely that the receiver input is already unbalanced. It likely already has a ground return for the antenna circuit, either directly or through a capacitor, to complete the signal path for an unbalanced antenna input. A balanced antenna system could be used with the receiver to improve the signal to noise ratio by inserting a balun at the receiver between the balanced horizontally polarized antenna system and the unbalanced input on the receiver. Best regards, Richard Harrison, KB5WZI |
#3
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If I put another 23 ft wire to the radio ground and run it off as
closely s possible to 180 degrees away from the first wire, will this necessarily (likely?) improve reception? ============================ You will have an additional, elevated radial wire. In some directions and elevation angles and frequencies reception will be very slightly improved. In other directions and elevation angles and frequencies reception will be very slightly worse. On the average, no change. By changing it to a centre-fed dipole, delete 'very slightly'. |
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