Dave:
I quickly scanned the responses to this point, and no one gave you the
correct guidance. In this present day environment, if you are interested in
BCB DXing, forget electric field (wire) antennas. Too much noise. Unless
you live in the middle of the desert, and are willing to forgo modern
conveniences, all an outside wire at BCB will give you is more noise. Start
looking into shielded loops. Lots of information on the 'net about them.
Up to about 3 MHz, they will outperform wire antennas hands down anywhere
except "clean" government receive sites. And, even there, shielded loops
are the antenna of choice for BCB intercept, and lower frequencies. See,
for example "Hermes Loops" on TCI's web page. I forget who else makes them,
but the government buys lots of them.

Now, if you are interested in Short Wave reception, that's another matter.
But pitfalls lurk there also.

--
Crazy George
Remove NO and SPAM from return address
"Dave Pitzer" wrote in message
...
I'm going up on my roof later this week to repair and paint my chimney.
I'd
like to take the opportunity to at least start an a.m. broadcast band
antenna (long wire??) using my chimney as the anchor for one end.

What kind of wire shoulds I buy?. Alumimum, copper? What gauge? What can I
use for insulators. What's a good way to ground it?

I have lots of trees in both the front and back yards for the "other" end.
Given this flexibility, about how long should the wire be. Would the wire
ideally be parallel with the (flat) terrain of the yard?

Directionality: Assuming most of the a.m. station I want to DX are in the
general direction of southeast of my house, should I run the wire SE - NW
or
NE-SW.

Downlead to receiver??? (receiver has external antenna input -- ground and
"hot".)

Is there a Web-site I could/should investigate or a more appropriate
news-group?

Many thanks,

Dave Pitzer
Pocono Lake, PA
====================