On Nov 22, 12:20*am, RHF wrote:
On Nov 21, 4:55*pm, Bill Baka wrote:

Has anyone seen any shortwave radios in cars lately? I remember a few
from across the pond back in the 60's but it seems to have died out as a
fad. I would like to put one in one of my cars rather than a boom box
thing and be able to tune the world from wherever I find myself.
The other advantage is that I can drive to a spot with no power lines
for miles at night to listen relatively static free. I could (in theory)
take a long wire on a fishing pole (28-32AWG?) and put on a disposable
weight and toss it as far as possible into some high trees. Once it is
stuck firmly just back the car up until the whole spool is used up and
connect the car antenna to it.
Anybody tried it or anything like it?

Bill Baka

Tune-A-Stick -and- Portable Wire Antenna (PWA) for Whip
Antenna Couplers to External Shortwave Listener (SWL) Antennashttp://groups.google.com/group/rec.radio.shortwave/msg/29c232b1c5d205eahttp://groups.google.com/group/rec.radio.shortwave/msg/09c73c4c94625fc7

* Portable Wire Antenna "PWA"http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortwave-SWL-Antenna/message/583

* *Three Ways to Use the "Portable Wire Antenna" (PWA)http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortw...na/message/306

* *The "PWA" [Portable Wire Antenna]...
for use with 'portable' AM/FM Shortwave Radioshttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortwave-SWL-Antenna/message/249

Slip the Plastic Tube with the Wire wrapped
around it over your Car's Whip Antenna
=G////////////////////////////////////A=
One Lead 'G' to the Car's Body {Ground}
One Lead 'A' to the External Antenna

iane ~ RHF


Ah, I saw the google link. I tried to Tims and other versions of
coupling, that's why I purchased the longer and tougher radio antenna
to begin with. It definitely is better than any other antenna for
shortwave except for the steel whip. Anyone who has used a steel whip
knows that it has no peers when it comes to shortwave listening in a
vehicle, of course that is just my opinion but if there's better I
want to know.

On Nov 22, 1:24*am, Krypsis wrote:
Steve R. wrote:
"Bill Baka" wrote in message
...
Has anyone seen any shortwave radios in cars lately? I remember a few from
across the pond back in the 60's but it seems to have died out as a fad. I
would like to put one in one of my cars rather than a boom box thing and
be able to tune the world from wherever I find myself.
The other advantage is that I can drive to a spot with no power lines for
miles at night to listen relatively static free. I could (in theory) take
a long wire on a fishing pole (28-32AWG?) and put on a disposable weight
and toss it as far as possible into some high trees. Once it is stuck
firmly just back the car up until the whole spool is used up and connect
the car antenna to it.
Anybody tried it or anything like it?

Bill Baka

Way back, my old Jaguar Mk 10 had a radio made by PYE that had standard
broadcast and short-wave. Or was that the Mk II????? Short-wave reception
was spotty, and I never did try a long wire antenna on it.

Steve R.

I seem to remember an old valve car radio that had some shortwave
indicators on the dial. It was one of those common brands (AWA,
Kreisler, Pye) but exactly which one escapes me now. It was a long time
ago. Not my car, a friends, and we used to go on trips in it. Slow to
warm up and heavy on the battery if you used it too long without the
engine running. Caught us out once or twice but a roll start got us
under way again.
I seem to recall that car radio sensitivity on MW broadcast bands was a
lot better in the fifties and sixties than it is on modern car radios.
During the evenings, I used to be able to pick up stations 1 or 2
thousand kilometres away with ease. Nowadays, I only need to be a couple
of hundred kilometres way from my home city and I lose the signal. Maybe
the transmission power has been reduced? I know there was a time when
the MW spectrum became a bit crowded So that might have been why the
front end sensitivity of car radios was decreased. Well, the MW spectrum
is getting less crowded now.

Krypsis- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Yeah, I have gone "old school" for fifteen years when it comes to AM
car radio. I don't really listen to music so I make sure to go to the
junk yard and find me an old (just AM) radio that I install myself. I
am presently using an old Delco radio that is "extremely" selective, I
can barely turn the dial without hearing something.

I had all (in my *fun* car) the receivers/scanners and CB mounted to
1/2" steel plates that I welded to the front and rear of the car.
GROUND - GROUND - GROUND - many think it's only important for
transmitting but it's also smart on the receiving end.

I have a bunch of old tube type AM and a few AM/FM car radios.
My dad used to own a blue 1955 Ford Station Wagon car.The AM radio in
that car was very good for AM DXing.
cuhulin

On Nov 22, 8:44*am, "D. Peter Maus"
wrote:
On 11/21/09 18:55 , Bill Baka wrote:

Has anyone seen any shortwave radios in cars lately? I remember a few
from across the pond back in the 60's but it seems to have died out as a
fad. I would like to put one in one of my cars rather than a boom box
thing and be able to tune the world from wherever I find myself.
The other advantage is that I can drive to a spot with no power lines
for miles at night to listen relatively static free. I could (in theory)
take a long wire on a fishing pole (28-32AWG?) and put on a disposable
weight and toss it as far as possible into some high trees. Once it is
stuck firmly just back the car up until the whole spool is used up and
connect the car antenna to it.
Anybody tried it or anything like it?

Bill Baka

* *I have a Becker 2340 I used in my 308 for years. That was the
last aftermarket radio I saw with SW. I've heard tell of some
Sony's, but not being interested in anything from Sony, I never
pursued them.

* *The Becker offered excellent SW performance on the car's antenna.
A little ignition noise in deep fades, but not enough to complain
about. The injectors on 18 wheelers were more of a problem than
ignition noise. It has 40 or so memories. And exceptional audio.

* *As for driving out into the weeds...we had a member of this
group, living in Colorado, who used to drive out into Wyoming and
about two miles outside of Jackson Hole would hook his SW-2 up to
the guard rail and use that as a makeshift pseudo Beverage.

* *With dramatic results.

* *But attaching anything to your car radio antenna will not get you
where you want to go.

* *A car antenna does not really operate as an antenna. It's too
short for medium wave. It operates more like a capacitive element,
and is trimmed at the input to optimize performance. Attach a wire
to the car antenna, and you'll change it's capacitive value, and
throw your input out of balance. You're also likely to change that
whip into something that behaves more like a real antenna and
seriously overload your front end. On some models this can be
disastrous.

* *A better option would be to see if you can find an in-dash on the
used market, or take something like an SW-8 with you, mount it
underdash and enjoy it as a real shortwave receiver with a separate
antenna system.

That was a great post Peter. I liked the guardrail story.:-)

My friend hooked onto the railroad tracks once before keying up a lot
of wattage on his CB, he used the RR tracks as his ground.shaking my
head

I really never thought about hooking to the RR tracks for a shortwave
antenna, what do you think the results would be?
What type of car were you refering to when you said "308"?? Just
curious.

On Nov 22, 1:02*pm, Bill Baka wrote:
D. Peter Maus wrote:
On 11/21/09 18:55 , Bill Baka wrote:
Has anyone seen any shortwave radios in cars lately? I remember a few
from across the pond back in the 60's but it seems to have died out as a
fad. I would like to put one in one of my cars rather than a boom box
thing and be able to tune the world from wherever I find myself.
The other advantage is that I can drive to a spot with no power lines
for miles at night to listen relatively static free. I could (in theory)
take a long wire on a fishing pole (28-32AWG?) and put on a disposable
weight and toss it as far as possible into some high trees. Once it is
stuck firmly just back the car up until the whole spool is used up and
connect the car antenna to it.
Anybody tried it or anything like it?

Bill Baka

* I have a Becker 2340 I used in my 308 for years. That was the last
aftermarket radio I saw with SW. I've heard tell of some Sony's, but not
being interested in anything from Sony, I never pursued them.

* The Becker offered excellent SW performance on the car's antenna. A
little ignition noise in deep fades, but not enough to complain about.
The injectors on 18 wheelers were more of a problem than ignition noise..
It has 40 or so memories. And exceptional audio.

* As for driving out into the weeds...we had a member of this group,
living in Colorado, who used to drive out into Wyoming and about two
miles outside of Jackson Hole would hook his SW-2 up to the guard rail
and use that as a makeshift pseudo Beverage.

* With dramatic results.

* But attaching anything to your car radio antenna will not get you
where you want to go.

* A car antenna does not really operate as an antenna. It's too short
for medium wave. It operates more like a capacitive element, and is
trimmed at the input to optimize performance. Attach a wire to the car
antenna, and you'll change it's capacitive value, and throw your input
out of balance. You're also likely to change that whip into something
that behaves more like a real antenna and seriously overload your front
end. On some models this can be disastrous.

* A better option would be to see if you can find an in-dash on the used
market, or take something like an SW-8 with you, mount it underdash and
enjoy it as a real shortwave receiver with a separate antenna system.

That actually makes good sense since I don't want to listen while
driving anyway. The fading would drive me up the wall. I know the deal
on car antenna lengths and the antennas on most cars would probably tune
to 144 MHz or somewhere way up there. Figuring out how to fake a good
earth ground might be a challenge unless the mass of the car would make
it a good ground.
All for now.
Bill Baka- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Just so you know Bill, you *can* listen and drive without fading if
you're listening to a powerhouse. I listened to
China's show from the beginning on my way to Columbus and some hams
for the rest of my hour and twenty minute
drive from Cincinnati.

Like I said earlier, the best way to ground IMO your receiver or
transceiver is too run to the hardware store or your junk box and
pickup a quarter to half inch piece of metal/steel and drill the
appropriate size hole and weld it to the frame of your
car. If you don't know how to weld or don't have a arc welder....go to
any body shop. Either they'll do it for free or throw them a twenty
spot and it's done. Ground - ground and more ground is my motto. Good
luck and let us know what you do.

dave wrote:

Gregg wrote:


Like I said earlier, the best way to ground IMO your receiver or
transceiver is too run to the hardware store or your junk box and
pickup a quarter to half inch piece of metal/steel and drill the
appropriate size hole and weld it to the frame of your
car. If you don't know how to weld or don't have a arc welder....go to
any body shop. Either they'll do it for free or throw them a twenty
spot and it's done. Ground - ground and more ground is my motto. Good
luck and let us know what you do.


What if your car has no frame?

What if your drug addled ass has no direction, boy?

Gregg wrote:


Like I said earlier, the best way to ground IMO your receiver or
transceiver is too run to the hardware store or your junk box and
pickup a quarter to half inch piece of metal/steel and drill the
appropriate size hole and weld it to the frame of your
car. If you don't know how to weld or don't have a arc welder....go to
any body shop. Either they'll do it for free or throw them a twenty
spot and it's done. Ground - ground and more ground is my motto. Good
luck and let us know what you do.


What if your car has no frame?

Bob Dobbs wrote:
Gregg wrote:
GROUND - GROUND - GROUND - many think it's only important for
transmitting but it's also smart on the receiving end.

Might make the receptions a bit quieter from a s/n standpoint.

At best, at HF, a car can only be an asymmetric dipole. No ground.

"D. Peter Maus" wrote:

On 11/23/09 01:19 , Gregg wrote:
On Nov 22, 8:44 am, "D. Peter
wrote:
On 11/21/09 18:55 , Bill Baka wrote:

Has anyone seen any shortwave radios in cars lately? I remember a few
from across the pond back in the 60's but it seems to have died out as a
fad. I would like to put one in one of my cars rather than a boom box
thing and be able to tune the world from wherever I find myself.
The other advantage is that I can drive to a spot with no power lines
for miles at night to listen relatively static free. I could (in theory)
take a long wire on a fishing pole (28-32AWG?) and put on a disposable
weight and toss it as far as possible into some high trees. Once it is
stuck firmly just back the car up until the whole spool is used up and
connect the car antenna to it.
Anybody tried it or anything like it?

Bill Baka

I have a Becker 2340 I used in my 308 for years. That was the
last aftermarket radio I saw with SW. I've heard tell of some
Sony's, but not being interested in anything from Sony, I never
pursued them.

The Becker offered excellent SW performance on the car's antenna.
A little ignition noise in deep fades, but not enough to complain
about. The injectors on 18 wheelers were more of a problem than
ignition noise. It has 40 or so memories. And exceptional audio.

As for driving out into the weeds...we had a member of this
group, living in Colorado, who used to drive out into Wyoming and
about two miles outside of Jackson Hole would hook his SW-2 up to
the guard rail and use that as a makeshift pseudo Beverage.

With dramatic results.

But attaching anything to your car radio antenna will not get you
where you want to go.

A car antenna does not really operate as an antenna. It's too
short for medium wave. It operates more like a capacitive element,
and is trimmed at the input to optimize performance. Attach a wire
to the car antenna, and you'll change it's capacitive value, and
throw your input out of balance. You're also likely to change that
whip into something that behaves more like a real antenna and
seriously overload your front end. On some models this can be
disastrous.

A better option would be to see if you can find an in-dash on the
used market, or take something like an SW-8 with you, mount it
underdash and enjoy it as a real shortwave receiver with a separate
antenna system.

That was a great post Peter. I liked the guardrail story.:-)

My friend hooked onto the railroad tracks once before keying up a lot
of wattage on his CB, he used the RR tracks as his ground.shaking my
head

I really never thought about hooking to the RR tracks for a shortwave
antenna, what do you think the results would be?

Not sure. That would be the fun of the experiment. It may be
little different than the guard rail. It may be something entirely
different. The results should be unexpected and dramatic.

What type of car were you refering to when you said "308"?? Just
curious.

Think "Magnum PI."

Great car. As I recall it was a 308GTBI, or like that? I went to the factory and
saw them built right along with my once loved FIAT X1/9 !!!

On 11/23/09 01:19 , Gregg wrote:
On Nov 22, 8:44 am, "D. Peter
wrote:
On 11/21/09 18:55 , Bill Baka wrote:

Has anyone seen any shortwave radios in cars lately? I remember a few
from across the pond back in the 60's but it seems to have died out as a
fad. I would like to put one in one of my cars rather than a boom box
thing and be able to tune the world from wherever I find myself.
The other advantage is that I can drive to a spot with no power lines
for miles at night to listen relatively static free. I could (in theory)
take a long wire on a fishing pole (28-32AWG?) and put on a disposable
weight and toss it as far as possible into some high trees. Once it is
stuck firmly just back the car up until the whole spool is used up and
connect the car antenna to it.
Anybody tried it or anything like it?

Bill Baka

I have a Becker 2340 I used in my 308 for years. That was the
last aftermarket radio I saw with SW. I've heard tell of some
Sony's, but not being interested in anything from Sony, I never
pursued them.

The Becker offered excellent SW performance on the car's antenna.
A little ignition noise in deep fades, but not enough to complain
about. The injectors on 18 wheelers were more of a problem than
ignition noise. It has 40 or so memories. And exceptional audio.

As for driving out into the weeds...we had a member of this
group, living in Colorado, who used to drive out into Wyoming and
about two miles outside of Jackson Hole would hook his SW-2 up to
the guard rail and use that as a makeshift pseudo Beverage.

With dramatic results.

But attaching anything to your car radio antenna will not get you
where you want to go.

A car antenna does not really operate as an antenna. It's too
short for medium wave. It operates more like a capacitive element,
and is trimmed at the input to optimize performance. Attach a wire
to the car antenna, and you'll change it's capacitive value, and
throw your input out of balance. You're also likely to change that
whip into something that behaves more like a real antenna and
seriously overload your front end. On some models this can be
disastrous.

A better option would be to see if you can find an in-dash on the
used market, or take something like an SW-8 with you, mount it
underdash and enjoy it as a real shortwave receiver with a separate
antenna system.

That was a great post Peter. I liked the guardrail story.:-)

My friend hooked onto the railroad tracks once before keying up a lot
of wattage on his CB, he used the RR tracks as his ground.shaking my
head

I really never thought about hooking to the RR tracks for a shortwave
antenna, what do you think the results would be?


Not sure. That would be the fun of the experiment. It may be
little different than the guard rail. It may be something entirely
different. The results should be unexpected and dramatic.


What type of car were you refering to when you said "308"?? Just
curious.

Think "Magnum PI."