I'm slowly getting back into shortwave listening, but I live in a valley
(Las Vegas) and could use an indoor active antenna.

Any suggestions?

You can e-mail me directly at unidyne _AT_ cox.net

(Replace the "_AT_" with a "@". Thanks!)

On Sat, 20 Sep 2003 21:12:59 -0700, "unidyne"
wrote:

I'm slowly getting back into shortwave listening, but I live in a valley
(Las Vegas) and could use an indoor active antenna.

Any suggestions?

You can e-mail me directly at unidyne _AT_ cox.net

(Replace the "_AT_" with a "@". Thanks!)



Using an active antenna will not necessarily help you. You
specificaly mention 'indoor' - are you unable to put up anything
outdoors? If you are in an apartment/condo/townhome do you have a
balcony where you could install a 'stealth antenna'? The pitfall of
an indoor antenna is that there are more noise sources indoors than
out (appliances, consumer electronics, light dimmers etc) that if a
problem with your whip or indoor wire will only be amplified with an
active antenna. You may wish to consider something like what I used
for my bedroom radio. Itis a loop that is tacked to an outside wall,
it has a 36 foot circumference (small room) and is coupled to the
feedline with a 9:1 balun/transformer that was made using the torroid
from a 300/75 ohm "TV balun" 30 turns on the antenna side and 10 turns
on the radio side using #26 'magnet wire' (can be purchased at Radio
Shack in a pack with #22 and #30 wire also). Please understand that
there is no special engineering in what I have, was playing around
with different configurations of wire fed directly to the radio and
was plagued with noise, had the balun/transformer from a previous day
of "radio experimentation for the purpose of not mowing the lawn" and
it was somewhat better - on that configuation the ground was common to
both input & output. Then after some fermented grain & hops I got the
idea to isolate the input/output (or high side/low side) and while
there was a slightly perceptable reduction of signal ....... most all
fo the noise was gone!

On the antenna side, one end of the windings to one end of the loop
and the other end of the winding to the other side of the loop. On
the radio side it's basically the same: one end of the winding to the
positive (or center pin) and the other end to ground. Suggest that
you wind the balun and put it in a 'project box' (some argue all
metal, others use plastic as I did - suggest you go with what's
readily available) with the leads from the windings going to binding
posts - don't forget to label the binding posts so you always know
which end of the balun/transformer is the high side (9) and which the
low side (1). The great thing about binding posts is you can easily
play around with different circumference loops without having to
unsolder old connections and make new ones.

Suggest you try different locations in your home - remember that
outside walls will tend to be your best bet but don't let that stop
you from doing things like going all horizontal and making a loop
where the ceiling meets the wall. If you have a portable radio with a
1/8 inch phone plug you can also get (at your local RatShack) audio
cable with 1/8 inch phone plug on one end and spade lugs on the other
- or get any cable with the right plug and just cut off the other end
& strip and connect.