Suggestions for an Indoor shortwave antenna to go with a Sony SW7600GR
G'day everyone,
I've got a Sony SW7600GR, and it's been going great guns for me for the past 4 years or so. I now feel that I'm ready to take a step up and try using a more powerful antenna (atm I'm just using the supplied wire loop antenna that couples onto the whip antenna). Unfortunately I live in an apartment complex, so that rules out outdoor antennae *sigh* I also don't feel I have the necessary confidence to build my own antenna at the risk of frying my radio (which would be very difficult to replace - can't seem to find anywhere in Australia that sells them anywhere). I'm thus looking at the Sony AN-LP1, Kiwa Pocket Loop (with PRM) or the AOR LA380. Now all are quite pricey, so I want to make sure I get the right thing! Does anyone have any recommendations as to which ones might offer the best performance? All three have been quite positively reviewed, I'm just wondering which one out of the three might work best with my receiver... Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Daxiuyi Sydney, Australia PS: Have searched this group on this issue and while people have recommended the Sony, it's always been in comparison to other window loop antennae. I can't find any comparison between it and the Kiwa and/ or AOR. Also some of the comments on this have been a few years old, and was looking for a fresh perspective ;) |
Suggestions for an Indoor shortwave antenna to go with a Sony SW7600GR
On Jun 13, 8:53 pm, wrote:
On Jun 12, 10:20 pm, Daxiuyi wrote: G'day everyone, I've got a Sony SW7600GR, and it's been going great guns for me for the past 4 years or so. I now feel that I'm ready to take a step up and try using a more powerful antenna (atm I'm just using the supplied wire loop antenna that couples onto the whip antenna). Unfortunately I live in an apartment complex, so that rules out outdoor antennae *sigh* I also don't feel I have the necessary confidence to build my own antenna at the risk of frying my radio (which would be very difficult to replace - can't seem to find anywhere in Australia that sells them anywhere). I'm thus looking at the Sony AN-LP1, Kiwa Pocket Loop (with PRM) or the AOR LA380. Now all are quite pricey, so I want to make sure I get the right thing! Does anyone have any recommendations as to which ones might offer the best performance? All three have been quite positively reviewed, I'm just wondering which one out of the three might work best with my receiver... Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Daxiuyi Sydney, Australia PS: Have searched this group on this issue and while people have recommended the Sony, it's always been in comparison to other window loop antennae. I can't find any comparison between it and the Kiwa and/ or AOR. Also some of the comments on this have been a few years old, and was looking for a fresh perspective ;) You can probably glue ~30 feet of wire on the outside of your windows.. and if you are nimble, you should be able to toss some wire from one window to the next; that should help Ok, my apartment is more than 30 storeys up, so tossing a wire is not really possible. Plus my landlord's "a bit" fussy and so I can't leave a wire glued to the outside. So far I've been relying on stringing my supplied wire antenna around my balcony. Besides, I feel it's time to give a more active antenna a go :) Any other suggestions? |
Suggestions for an Indoor shortwave antenna to go with a Sony SW7600GR
On 13 Jun, 14:41, Daxiuyi wrote:
On Jun 13, 8:53 pm, wrote: On Jun 12, 10:20 pm, Daxiuyi wrote: G'day everyone, I've got a Sony SW7600GR, and it's been going great guns for me for the past 4 years or so. I now feel that I'm ready to take a step up and try using a more powerful antenna (atm I'm just using the supplied wire loop antenna that couples onto the whip antenna). Unfortunately I live in an apartment complex, so that rules out outdoor antennae *sigh* I also don't feel I have the necessary confidence to build my own antenna at the risk of frying my radio (which would be very difficult to replace - can't seem to find anywhere in Australia that sells them anywhere). I'm thus looking at the Sony AN-LP1, Kiwa Pocket Loop (with PRM) or the AOR LA380. Now all are quite pricey, so I want to make sure I get the right thing! Does anyone have any recommendations as to which ones might offer the best performance? All three have been quite positively reviewed, I'm just wondering which one out of the three might work best with my receiver... Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Daxiuyi Sydney, Australia PS: Have searched this group on this issue and while people have recommended the Sony, it's always been in comparison to other window loop antennae. I can't find any comparison between it and the Kiwa and/ or AOR. Also some of the comments on this have been a few years old, and was looking for a fresh perspective ;) You can probably glue ~30 feet of wire on the outside of your windows.. and if you are nimble, you should be able to toss some wire from one window to the next; that should help Ok, my apartment is more than 30 storeys up, so tossing a wire is not really possible. Plus my landlord's "a bit" fussy and so I can't leave a wire glued to the outside. So far I've been relying on stringing my supplied wire antenna around my balcony. Besides, I feel it's time to give a more active antenna a go :) Any other suggestions? I once made a connector that let me use the 'braid' of the TV aerial cable as an aerial; it conveniently ran up the side of the house and onto the roof and pulled in a great signal. I have to agree with active aerials though, I use a DE31 when I'm in hotels and they are a great solution. |
Suggestions for an Indoor shortwave antenna to go with a Sony SW7600GR
On Jun 17, 11:15 am, Stephan Grossklass
wrote: Daxiuyi schrieb: G'day everyone, I've got a Sony SW7600GR, and it's been going great guns for me for the past 4 years or so. I now feel that I'm ready to take a step up and try using a more powerful antenna (atm I'm just using the supplied wire loop antenna that couples onto the whip antenna). Unfortunately I live in an apartment complex, so that rules out outdoor antennae *sigh* I also don't feel I have the necessary confidence to build my own antenna at the risk of frying my radio (which would be very difficult to replace - can't seem to find anywhere in Australia that sells them anywhere). I fail to see how one could damage a radio electrically with something like a homebrew passive SW loop, but it's you choice. (Some skills and experience are recommended in any case, and you'd need to hunt down some kind of tuning capacitor, preferably oldschool air core although standard ones also work decently. Suggestions for tuned loop antenna designs can be found on the web.) I'm thus looking at the Sony AN-LP1, Kiwa Pocket Loop (with PRM) or the AOR LA380. Now all are quite pricey, so I want to make sure I get the right thing! Does anyone have any recommendations as to which ones might offer the best performance? I'm not sure whether an antenna costing more than the rx itself (which applies to the latter two options) would be such an economical solution. Thus probably the lack of comparisons between your candidates - for a receiver like the 7600GR, one would normally be looking at the AN-LP1 (a well-performing ready-to-go concept for 75 through 16/13 meters) or one of the DE31 variations (cheaper and generally decent). The Pocket Loop would have the advantage of tuning MW as well, although one would prefer something with more area there (I have a homebrew about 93 cm x 93 cm air cap tuned square loop that I've nicknamed the "AM loupe" because of the large boost provided; BTW this is a classic DIY field). Ah, I see the PRM enables regeneration, which can be quite useful indeed - this might compensate for the lower area. Overall, a fairly versatile portable antenna (much more so than the AN-LP1), but quite expensive already. It is to be hoped that it's able to drive the several-hundred-ohms external antenna input of the 7600GR (should be). The LA380 is a slightly different beast again, covering a broader frequency range from LW all the way to VHF but not having peaking for MW. It seems geared more towards use with tabletops and might match a relatively compact set like a HF150, AR-7030 or IC-R75. I would consider it a bit over the top in terms of price. Overall, the Pocket Loop may be worth a try if you don't mind the cost, otherwise the much cheaper AN-LP1 is far from the worst option. Stephan -- Home:http://stephan.win31.de/ You don't need science for everything - but sometimes it does help to have a rough idea of what you're doing... Thanks very much for that Stephan, your advice has been really helpful :) I think I will go for the Pocket Loop, provided I can get Kiwa Electronics to reply to my emails!!! Failing that, I'll just bite the bullet and get the Sony SN-LP1. Many thanks again, |
Suggestions for an Indoor shortwave antenna to go with a Sony SW7600GR
On Jun 16, 6:15 pm, Stephan Grossklass
wrote: Daxiuyi schrieb: G'day everyone, I've got a Sony SW7600GR, and it's been going great guns for me for the past 4 years or so. I now feel that I'm ready to take a step up and try using a more powerful antenna (atm I'm just using the supplied wire loop antenna that couples onto the whip antenna). Unfortunately I live in an apartment complex, so that rules out outdoor antennae *sigh* I also don't feel I have the necessary confidence to build my own antenna at the risk of frying my radio (which would be very difficult to replace - can't seem to find anywhere in Australia that sells them anywhere). I fail to see how one could damage a radio electrically with something like a homebrew passive SW loop, but it's you choice. (Some skills and experience are recommended in any case, and you'd need to hunt down some kind of tuning capacitor, preferably oldschool air core although standard ones also work decently. Suggestions for tuned loop antenna designs can be found on the web.) I'm thus looking at the Sony AN-LP1, Kiwa Pocket Loop (with PRM) or the AOR LA380. Now all are quite pricey, so I want to make sure I get the right thing! Does anyone have any recommendations as to which ones might offer the best performance? I'm not sure whether an antenna costing more than the rx itself (which applies to the latter two options) would be such an economical solution. Thus probably the lack of comparisons between your candidates - for a receiver like the 7600GR, one would normally be looking at the AN-LP1 (a well-performing ready-to-go concept for 75 through 16/13 meters) or one of the DE31 variations (cheaper and generally decent). The Pocket Loop would have the advantage of tuning MW as well, although one would prefer something with more area there (I have a homebrew about 93 cm x 93 cm air cap tuned square loop that I've nicknamed the "AM loupe" because of the large boost provided; BTW this is a classic DIY field). Ah, I see the PRM enables regeneration, which can be quite useful indeed - this might compensate for the lower area. Overall, a fairly versatile portable antenna (much more so than the AN-LP1), but quite expensive already. It is to be hoped that it's able to drive the several-hundred-ohms external antenna input of the 7600GR (should be). The LA380 is a slightly different beast again, covering a broader frequency range from LW all the way to VHF but not having peaking for MW. It seems geared more towards use with tabletops and might match a relatively compact set like a HF150, AR-7030 or IC-R75. I would consider it a bit over the top in terms of price. Overall, the Pocket Loop may be worth a try if you don't mind the cost, otherwise the much cheaper AN-LP1 is far from the worst option. Stephan -- Home:http://stephan.win31.de/ You don't need science for everything - but sometimes it does help to have a rough idea of what you're doing... Last time I looked, you could get one of the Wellbrook loops for less than the LA380 costs. 'Nuff said. Steve |
Suggestions for an Indoor shortwave antenna to go with a Sony SW7600GR
On Jun 17, 5:23 pm, Daxiuyi wrote:
On Jun 17, 11:15 am, Stephan Grossklass wrote: Daxiuyi schrieb: G'day everyone, I've got a Sony SW7600GR, and it's been going great guns for me for the past 4 years or so. I now feel that I'm ready to take a step up and try using a more powerful antenna (atm I'm just using the supplied wire loop antenna that couples onto the whip antenna). Unfortunately I live in an apartment complex, so that rules out outdoor antennae *sigh* I also don't feel I have the necessary confidence to build my own antenna at the risk of frying my radio (which would be very difficult to replace - can't seem to find anywhere in Australia that sells them anywhere). I fail to see how one could damage a radio electrically with something like a homebrew passive SW loop, but it's you choice. (Some skills and experience are recommended in any case, and you'd need to hunt down some kind of tuning capacitor, preferably oldschool air core although standard ones also work decently. Suggestions for tuned loop antenna designs can be found on the web.) I'm thus looking at the Sony AN-LP1, Kiwa Pocket Loop (with PRM) or the AOR LA380. Now all are quite pricey, so I want to make sure I get the right thing! Does anyone have any recommendations as to which ones might offer the best performance? I'm not sure whether an antenna costing more than the rx itself (which applies to the latter two options) would be such an economical solution. Thus probably the lack of comparisons between your candidates - for a receiver like the 7600GR, one would normally be looking at the AN-LP1 (a well-performing ready-to-go concept for 75 through 16/13 meters) or one of the DE31 variations (cheaper and generally decent). The Pocket Loop would have the advantage of tuning MW as well, although one would prefer something with more area there (I have a homebrew about 93 cm x 93 cm air cap tuned square loop that I've nicknamed the "AM loupe" because of the large boost provided; BTW this is a classic DIY field). Ah, I see the PRM enables regeneration, which can be quite useful indeed - this might compensate for the lower area. Overall, a fairly versatile portable antenna (much more so than the AN-LP1), but quite expensive already. It is to be hoped that it's able to drive the several-hundred-ohms external antenna input of the 7600GR (should be). The LA380 is a slightly different beast again, covering a broader frequency range from LW all the way to VHF but not having peaking for MW. It seems geared more towards use with tabletops and might match a relatively compact set like a HF150, AR-7030 or IC-R75. I would consider it a bit over the top in terms of price. Overall, the Pocket Loop may be worth a try if you don't mind the cost, otherwise the much cheaper AN-LP1 is far from the worst option. Stephan -- Home:http://stephan.win31.de/ You don't need science for everything - but sometimes it does help to have a rough idea of what you're doing... Thanks very much for that Stephan, your advice has been really helpful :) I think I will go for the Pocket Loop, provided I can get Kiwa Electronics to reply to my emails!!! Failing that, I'll just bite the bullet and get the Sony SN-LP1. Many thanks again,- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - DAXIUYI, Kiwa Pocket Loop Antenna @ $196 + $8 S&H http://kiwa.com/pktloop.html Covers 530 kHz to 23 MHz Kiwa Pocket Regeneration Module @ $48 + $4 S&H http://kiwa.com/pktloop.html IMHO - The Sony AN-LP1 Shortwave Active Loop Antenna and a Select-A-Tenna 541-M AM/MW Loop Antenna will give about the same level of performance and cost a lot less. And both are eaiser to use then the Kiwa. - iane ~ RHF Sony AN-LP1 Shortwave Active Loop Antenna http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/sw_ant/3676.html Coverage : 3.85 to 21.95 MHz Select-A-Tenna (SAT) 541-M AM/MW Loop Antenna http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/mwant/4316.html Coverage : 530 to 1710 kHz Use the SAT 541-M with a Lazy Susan especially if you want to do some AM/MW DXing with the Sony ICF-SW7600GR Radio. - - - Tune + Position & Listen |
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