In the interest of my recent tinkerings with radios (both antique and
homebrew), I have put up an 80 foot straight wire antenna above the house.
It sits about 35 feet up from, and horizontal to, the ground. I am using a
lead in from one end made of insulated stranded copper wire (basically old
speaker cable, about 18 guage I think). Right now, the lead-in wire comes
down from the end of the antenna closest to the sun porch, and in through
the storm window via a well-insulated bushing. Due to the location of this
lead-in, this is the spot wherre I have been doing most of the tinkering
with the radios. I also have a copper pipe ground rod in a nearby location
so as to have as short a path to ground as possible.) It seems to work OK
for now but I would ideally like to run the lead-in into my basement where
my workshop is. I read somewhere (I think it might have been in reference
to crystal sets) that you can use coax for an AM lead-in. Would this be
better for a longer/more convoluted lead-in? Would I use the braded shield
as the ground connection or would I run a separate ground back to my copper
rod outside? What type of coax would be best for this sort of thing? I am
interested in receiving both broadcast and shortwave. Any info on this
matter would be most appreciated.

thanks in advance,

Dave