On May 21, 12:36*pm, bpnjensen wrote:
On May 21, 12:42*am, Gregg wrote:





On May 20, 10:05*am, bpnjensen wrote:

On May 20, 1:18*am, Gregg wrote:

On May 19, 11:58*am, bpnjensen wrote:

On May 19, 7:51*am, Drifter wrote:

On 5/19/2010 9:06 AM, dave wrote:

Gregg wrote:
OK. I cleaned out my mini barn on the back part of my property. It now
looks like what I wanted when I had it build. I've got two shelves up
and I'm going to add six more throughout the area.

It is now primed and ready for me to bring some of my equipment out
there. I brought out the lasy susan table and my GE P780 and later
today I'm going to bring the DX398 out there. I have my Pop Comm / MT
mags - my killer rocking chair :-) - I've been having fun.

Even though I live in a pretty good area whereas there isn't much RFI
to deal with, I did notice a big difference just being roughly 70 ft.
away from the house.

OK - here is the question. With the GE and even the 398 I suppose. I
ran a length of 12 gauge to my AD DX Sloper with a alligator clip and
ran it back to the GE. My thinking was that I could couple that to
both of my radios that way, which I did with the GE already- along
with having my loop out there. Will this work? I noticed a big
difference out there, but I was only out there for maybe 45 minutes
and it was around 5pm - so I don't know if the radio came alive just
because I was away from everything or because I hooked up to the
antenna. Any comments would be appreciated.

Antenna overload will be your enemy. Figure a way to couple the energy
to the receivers without swamping the front-ends.

Gregg. I have to go with Dave on this. the 398 has a lose front-end, and
almost any bit of wire over 20 ft. will give you trouble. i would
say the less hash is your big winner. that sloper is a real keeper, but
I would try your set-up on a few desk tops. I believe you will see a
bigger difference, from the house out there. it's like going from a
random long wire, to a good loop. you really don't receive more, you
just "hear" more. a lot of those low signals have always been there,
but now they kind of jump out at you. sounds like a cool set up.. is
your barn dry? if you keep your receivers there, ya gotta watch the
humidity. and don't forget the winter cold, ya don't want to kill
a good receiver. have fun.

Drifter...- Hide quoted text -

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I have used my DX-398 (Radiolabs mods) with my Alpha Delta DX-ULTRA
and a 60-foot wire outside, with lots of MW blowtorches nearby (like 2
- 50 kW stations within 2 miles on salt flats and another 5 miles away
or so, plus several others not far), and on SW anyway, it is no worse
than any other radio. *They all get some level of images below 3.5
MHz, bit nothing serious above. *If I got even ten miles away from
this crummy place, most of that would cease too.

The 398, for real signals, leaps ahead dramatically with an external
wire or active antenna. *The built-in whip is too weak - because, as I
understand it, Sangean places a resistor either in series with the
darn thing, or across to the ground, either of which is a dumb idea
and both of which are bypassed by the external antenna socket(s) :-/

Bruce- Hide quoted text -

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Just so you know, RL either includes the mod for the whip or if you
asked them to do it they would. I got my 398 basically as soon as they
came out. I kind of had mixed feelings on Chris Justice for the drama
between him and Grove (I'm sure you read the story), it was pretty
hairy on both sides IMO.

But when I sent mine to Chris he had just broke away from Grove and I
think I was one of the first to get mine modded....I'm not saying
literally the first but you know what I mean. But I had asked him
about the whip and he wasn't quite sure at the time if I remember
right but later he sent me an email explaining to me why the whip
sucked and that he would take care of it. After he started modding the
398/909's in earnest I noticed that ( I think) there was no mention of
doing anything to the whip itself on their site....I don't know - I
could be wrong. *{?}

But when I got mine back there was a HUGE difference just off the whip
itself - in a way it ****ed me off that the radio wasn't like that
from go get. But I've never even used the original external antenna
jack or the add on antenna socket on the back of the case he added.
I've always just used a little length of 12 gauge and rolled it up
real tight and placed it over the whip itself with a quarter inch of
wire showing and clipped onto that. Have you used the add on antenna
socket he put on the back of your radio? Do you like it - good
results?

I have used the new antenna socket on the back with RCA plug hooked up
to my PL-259 from the antenna phaser. *Works great, as does the
standard side plug. *For the whip, I would not make a direct metal-
metal connection to a wire; just coil up the incoming wire insulated
and place it over the whip. *Induction does the rest for you,
minimizes images and the potential for static damage.

Bruce- Hide quoted text -

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I forget, can those external antennas - especially the RCA plug - you
could hook up an external FM antenna just for music, right? DX the FM
band.- Hide quoted text -

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I think so - I'd have to check. *What you'd need to do is put up an
external FM-designed antenna as high as possible. *I have tried my big
outdoor wires on FM and VHF and UHF on one of my portables, and the
little whip antennas are usually as good or better for most
applications, just because the wavelengths are a better match. *In
this case, height is more important than excess size.- Hide quoted text -

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Yeah, an old acquaintance of mine turned me on to a FM Antenna - still
have it with the Yagi and big ass Channel Master and a few others. One
day. :-)