shortwave ABSOLUTE BEGINNER: antenna with stereo jack cable?
 

Hi there,

I really don't know much about shortwave / DX, but I have bought the
Siemens RK 661 (Sangean 808) some weeks ago. Now I have time to use it
an get used to it.
So it works best with an external antenna. I have a compact antenna
from Grundig (came with a YB400), but this don't work very good. Now i
tested a lot and found out that it works pretty good with a normal
stereo jack extension cable (4 meters), that I put on some good
positions in my room.
Is this a known "antenna trick"? I mean, I don't know anything about
shortwave antennas, so I would like to know if - with this kind of
nearly NO effort - there is another way to improve this solution I
found a little? or ist this already all I can do, if I don't want (and
can't) build a "real" antenna.

thank you!
littbarski

shortwave ABSOLUTE BEGINNER: antenna with stereo jack cable?
 

The short answer is that anything that works for you is OK. With a portable radio such as that, really big antennas are generally counterproductive because the radio amplifies whatever comes in on an antenna so much that if you add too much wire, you end up overloading the radio which causes distorted sound and signals coming in where they don't actually exist as well as a problem of very strong signals overwhelming weak ones you might want to hear. If you have any way of grounding the radio, that will help reception. Listening at night on the lower bands (9 mhz and below) should yeild lots of good listening, and in the daytime, the upper bands might be more productive. Good listening :)

All life all holiness come from you O Lord
Brio




"littbarski" wrote in message ups.com...
Hi there,

I really don't know much about shortwave / DX, but I have bought the
Siemens RK 661 (Sangean 808) some weeks ago. Now I have time to use it
an get used to it.
So it works best with an external antenna. I have a compact antenna
from Grundig (came with a YB400), but this don't work very good. Now i
tested a lot and found out that it works pretty good with a normal
stereo jack extension cable (4 meters), that I put on some good
positions in my room.
Is this a known "antenna trick"? I mean, I don't know anything about
shortwave antennas, so I would like to know if - with this kind of
nearly NO effort - there is another way to improve this solution I
found a little? or ist this already all I can do, if I don't want (and
can't) build a "real" antenna.

thank you!
littbarski

shortwave ABSOLUTE BEGINNER: antenna with stereo jack cable?
 

Hi Litt
Keep experimenting with your antenna:
Here are three rules to help you:
1.) if you can get it out your most favourable window get it up high and
away from the building
2.) experiment with positioning it away from household noise sources
3.) any sort of wire is good, even very thin near invisible wire - there are
purists who might dispute this statement, but I give you 40 years worth of
experimenting and antenna farming.

Portables generally don't like too much wire connected to them or they start
overloading and giving spurious images, plus you can also BLOW the front end
and end up with costly repairs. I wouldn't connect more than 10m/30ft of
wire to a portable.

If you want to build a "real" antenna you better get a serious tabletop like
an Icom R75.
Portables are designed to work well on their whip antenna's and have to be
small inexpensive and light weight, so trying to get them to emulate a
larger more expensive tabletop radio is only going to give you the problems
mentioned above.

--
John Plimmer, Montagu, Western Cape Province, South Africa
South 33 d 47 m 32 s, East 20 d 07 m 32 s
RX Icom IC-756 PRO III with MW mods
Drake SW8 & ERGO software
Sony 7600D, GE SRIII, Redsun RP2100
BW XCR 30, Braun T1000, Sangean 818 & 803A.
GE circa 50's radiogram
Antenna's RF Systems DX 1 Pro, Datong AD-270
Kiwa MW Loop
http://www.dxing.info/about/dxers/plimmer.dx

"littbarski" wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi there,

I really don't know much about shortwave / DX, but I have bought the
Siemens RK 661 (Sangean 808) some weeks ago. Now I have time to use it
an get used to it.
So it works best with an external antenna. I have a compact antenna
from Grundig (came with a YB400), but this don't work very good. Now i
tested a lot and found out that it works pretty good with a normal
stereo jack extension cable (4 meters), that I put on some good
positions in my room.
Is this a known "antenna trick"? I mean, I don't know anything about
shortwave antennas, so I would like to know if - with this kind of
nearly NO effort - there is another way to improve this solution I
found a little? or ist this already all I can do, if I don't want (and
can't) build a "real" antenna.

thank you!
littbarski

shortwave ABSOLUTE BEGINNER: antenna with stereo jack cable?
 

hi Brio,

thanks a lot for your answer, that helped me. One additional answer:
how can I ground this type of receiver? there is no exit than
haedphones and antenna. do I have to make external antenna and ground
together, or do I have to open the product?

greets
littbarski

shortwave ABSOLUTE BEGINNER: antenna with stereo jack cable?
 

Hi John,

thank you also a lot for your answer. at the moment I am receiving many
good stations (as it's night here in Europe). I also took another wire
(also from my stereo) which is even better (with cinch a the end, not
so long, only two meters).

i will try the things you told me. grounding a portable is probably not
really necessary?

greets
littbarski

shortwave ABSOLUTE BEGINNER: antenna with stereo jack cable?
 

In article ,
"Verstaldin" wrote:

"littbarski" wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi there,

I really don't know much about shortwave / DX, but I have bought the
Siemens RK 661 (Sangean 808) some weeks ago. Now I have time to use it
an get used to it.
So it works best with an external antenna. I have a compact antenna
from Grundig (came with a YB400), but this don't work very good. Now i
tested a lot and found out that it works pretty good with a normal
stereo jack extension cable (4 meters), that I put on some good
positions in my room.
Is this a known "antenna trick"? I mean, I don't know anything about
shortwave antennas, so I would like to know if - with this kind of
nearly NO effort - there is another way to improve this solution I
found a little? or ist this already all I can do, if I don't want (and
can't) build a "real" antenna.


The short answer is that anything that works for you is OK. With a portable
radio such as that, really big antennas are generally counterproductive
because the radio amplifies whatever comes in on an antenna so much that if
you add too much wire, you end up overloading the radio which causes
distorted sound and signals coming in where they don't actually exist as well
as a problem of very strong signals overwhelming weak ones you might want to
hear. If you have any way of grounding the radio, that will help reception.
Listening at night on the lower bands (9 mhz and below) should yeild lots of
good listening, and in the daytime, the upper bands might be more productive.
Good listening :)

Verstaldin gave you good information.

If you are not having an issue with local noise preventing you from
hearing stations you want to hear then keep using what you have.

Chances are that the noise interfering with reception will be greater
using the AC adapter instead of batteries. If the noise is not a
problem then you will most likely notice that the signals come in
stronger with the AC adapter in use because it will create a virtual
ground with the single wire antenna you are currently using. This
single wire is really half an antenna where ground is the other half.

This single wire antenna, if you are using the external antenna jack,
is most likely connected to the tip of the jack. The antenna jack
barrel is probably the radio ground so what you could do is make a
dipole antenna connecting an additional wire to the antenna jack barrel
tab inside the jack. String the additional wire in the opposite
direction of the original wire connected to the jack tip. This dipole
antenna is a complete antenna that does not need a ground. Using this
antenna should give you an improvement in signal level using the
batteries and might also cut down on the noise using the AC adapter.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California