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Ferrite Magnet antenna wire ; gauge question
Hi All:
radio shack has the following for sale: Three-spool assortment .. Includes 40 feet of 22-gauge, 75 feet of 26-gauge and 200 feet of 30-gauge. - anyone have any idea which type / gauge wire is best for a ferrite antenna ? - Also found a good source for 365 Pf variable capacitors.. http://www.oselectronics.com/ose_p96.htm "1 Gang Broadcast Variable Capacitor 14-365PF The most popular Broadcast variable capacitor for use by amateurs, experimenters, and hobbyists. Ideally suited for uilding crystal radios, receivers, transmitters, or QRP tuners. Sturdy construction with aluminum plates, low loss bakelite insulation and ball bearing drive. Specifications: • Capacitance 14-365 PF • 1/4" Diameter shaft 9/16" long • Measures 1 3/8"W x 1 3/16"D x 1 5/16H BC14400.........................$10.95 ( They also sell ferrite rods) Dan |
- Thanks..
- I'll try the 26; midway; not as delicate as the 30 & use ~60 turns on the paper wrapped over the ferrite bar. Found A Salvation army; wi;l buy a radio, fumigate it ( ouotside) disassemble it, get the coil & capacitor & then poke around & see what I get !! Dan In article , David writes: The 30 is thinnest. On 26 Oct 2003 14:08:45 GMT, (Diverd4777) wrote: Hi All: radio shack has the following for sale: Three-spool assortment .. Includes 40 feet of 22-gauge, 75 feet of 26-gauge and 200 feet of 30-gauge. - anyone have any idea which type / gauge wire is best for a ferrite antenna ? - Also found a good source for 365 Pf variable capacitors.. http://www.oselectronics.com/ose_p96.htm "1 Gang Broadcast Variable Capacitor 14-365PF The most popular Broadcast variable capacitor for use by amateurs, experimenters, and hobbyists. Ideally suited for uilding crystal radios, receivers, transmitters, or QRP tuners. Sturdy construction with aluminum plates, low loss bakelite insulation and ball bearing drive. Specifications: • Capacitance 14-365 PF • 1/4" Diameter shaft 9/16" long • Measures 1 3/8"W x 1 3/16"D x 1 5/16H BC14400.........................$10.95 ( They also sell ferrite rods) Dan |
Litz wire, a specially woven fabric insulated wire is required for
Loopsticks SKYCRAFT electronics in Orlando has it at iirc $0.08/ft .. Yodar On 26 Oct 2003 14:08:45 GMT, (Diverd4777) wrote: - anyone have any idea which type / gauge wire is best for a ferrite antenna ? |
Unless you don't have it then use magnet wire. You'll never know the
difference. "Joe Strain" wrote in message m... Litz wire, a specially woven fabric insulated wire is required for Loopsticks SKYCRAFT electronics in Orlando has it at iirc $0.08/ft . Yodar On 26 Oct 2003 14:08:45 GMT, (Diverd4777) wrote: - anyone have any idea which type / gauge wire is best for a ferrite antenna ? |
I tried making my own loopstick antenna using that same Radio Shack assortment
of wire, and it worked pretty good. I used the red wire, fergit what size that was. Antenna worked pretty good without a pre-amp. Using that stick and the Kenwood R1000, I got a nice deep null on WSCR 1000khz in CHicago, some 100km south of me, and heard Cuba. jw wb9uai milwaukee |
"CW" wrote in message news:hhYmb.25685$mZ5.115003@attbi_s54... Unless you don't have it then use magnet wire. You'll never know the difference. That's true. I have several radios with standard wire wrapped around the ferrite rods. Usually when they use standard wire, the turns are spaced widely enough to take up nearly the length of the rod. A wide wire spacing, about twice the thickness of the wire should reduce losses and increase the tuning frequency range, compared to close spaced wire. In practice, the tuning range problem will probably be more noticable. Just wrap a bunch of wire, spaced maybe 1/16 to 1/8 inch or so, over the length of the rod. This probably won't tune to the top of the AM band. Then remove turns until it tunes to the top when the cap is fully open. Frank Dresser |
Cool!
- May try 1620 U.S Virgin Islands 1160 Bermuda 810 & 1540 Bahamas, ( Also Albany NY) In article , (J999w) writes: Antenna worked pretty good without a pre-amp. Using that stick and the Kenwood R1000, I got a nice deep null on WSCR 1000khz in CHicago, some 100km south of me, and heard Cuba. |
Frank, thanks:
- took a 2-3 inch peice of paper wrapped it rond the ferrite, then wound ~50 turns ( tight spaced) round the paper. ( About ten feet of 26 gague wire.) Taped it in place, the whole thing slides tightly up & down the ferrite. Will go to Goodwill & pick up a radio tomorrow; - found the price goes up if you say it fer parts; - maybe if I say I've fallen & found JESUS Price'll go down - In any case.. This being NYC, I'll bring bus spray & a plastic bag; spray the radio whilst in the bag. Tye it up, put it in the trunk & drive on home. Once home, will take the bag ouot to the lawn, unwrap it, Kill whatever staggers out ( - New York! New York! It's a wonderful town !!) Then clean the radio with Paper towels & bring it inside. Plan on disassembling it in the Apt house Basement. then bringing the cleaned up parts ( Capacitor, radio's ferrite.) upstairs.. & THEN I'll try the procedure someone from the ferrite group sent to Elfa.. & modify as needed.. with a few tricks.. SHOULD work.. ! Dan In article , "Frank Dresser" writes: "CW" wrote in message news:hhYmb.25685$mZ5.115003@attbi_s54... Unless you don't have it then use magnet wire. You'll never know the difference. That's true. I have several radios with standard wire wrapped around the ferrite rods. Usually when they use standard wire, the turns are spaced widely enough to take up nearly the length of the rod. A wide wire spacing, about twice the thickness of the wire should reduce losses and increase the tuning frequency range, compared to close spaced wire. In practice, the tuning range problem will probably be more noticable. Just wrap a bunch of wire, spaced maybe 1/16 to 1/8 inch or so, over the length of the rod. This probably won't tune to the top of the AM band. Then remove turns until it tunes to the top when the cap is fully open. Frank Dresser |
"Diverd4777" wrote in message ... Frank, thanks: - took a 2-3 inch peice of paper wrapped it rond the ferrite, then wound ~50 turns ( tight spaced) round the paper. ( About ten feet of 26 gague wire.) Taped it in place, the whole thing slides tightly up & down the ferrite. Will go to Goodwill & pick up a radio tomorrow; - found the price goes up if you say it fer parts; - maybe if I say I've fallen & found JESUS Price'll go down - In any case.. This being NYC, I'll bring bus spray & a plastic bag; spray the radio whilst in the bag. Tye it up, put it in the trunk & drive on home. Once home, will take the bag ouot to the lawn, unwrap it, Kill whatever staggers out ( - New York! New York! It's a wonderful town !!) Then clean the radio with Paper towels & bring it inside. Plan on disassembling it in the Apt house Basement. then bringing the cleaned up parts ( Capacitor, radio's ferrite.) upstairs.. & THEN I'll try the procedure someone from the ferrite group sent to Elfa.. & modify as needed.. with a few tricks.. SHOULD work.. ! Dan It'll work, but it's hard to give specific instructions on how to make it work the first time. It's something to experiment with. By the way, the variable capacitors from Ocean State Electronics are pretty good. I have three of them, and they're date coded from 1999. They may still be in production. The plastic dielectric caps are harder to tune and work with. Nearly all of them are designed for AM/FM radios and have a bunch of unmarked tabs sticking out. More to experiment with. You can also use the original antenna winding to tune the AM band. There's likely at least one smaller winding on the ferrite rod you can use to connect to the antenna terminals of a radio. Have you made a box loop? I never bothered with ferrite rod antennas, because I figured a good sized loop would be a better performer. But I'd be curious about a side to side comparision. Frank Dresser |
Hi Frank
I bought a Radio Shack Loop antenna a while back ; works pretty well! - But I need a smaller, lighter A.M antenna for travel; the smaller & lighter the better; - hence the ferrite experiment. Already have a Sony AN-LP-1 works great for SWR Dan Have you made a box loop? I never bothered with ferrite rod antennas, because I figured a good sized loop would be a better performer. But I'd be curious about a side to side comparision. In article , "Frank Dresser" writes: "Diverd4777" wrote in message ... Frank, thanks: - took a 2-3 inch peice of paper wrapped it rond the ferrite, then wound ~50 turns ( tight spaced) round the paper. ( About ten feet of 26 gague wire.) Taped it in place, the whole thing slides tightly up & down the ferrite. Will go to Goodwill & pick up a radio tomorrow; - found the price goes up if you say it fer parts; - maybe if I say I've fallen & found JESUS Price'll go down - In any case.. This being NYC, I'll bring bus spray & a plastic bag; spray the radio whilst in the bag. Tye it up, put it in the trunk & drive on home. Once home, will take the bag ouot to the lawn, unwrap it, Kill whatever staggers out ( - New York! New York! It's a wonderful town !!) Then clean the radio with Paper towels & bring it inside. Plan on disassembling it in the Apt house Basement. then bringing the cleaned up parts ( Capacitor, radio's ferrite.) upstairs.. & THEN I'll try the procedure someone from the ferrite group sent to Elfa.. & modify as needed.. with a few tricks.. SHOULD work.. ! Dan It'll work, but it's hard to give specific instructions on how to make it work the first time. It's something to experiment with. By the way, the variable capacitors from Ocean State Electronics are pretty good. I have three of them, and they're date coded from 1999. They may still be in production. The plastic dielectric caps are harder to tune and work with. Nearly all of them are designed for AM/FM radios and have a bunch of unmarked tabs sticking out. More to experiment with. You can also use the original antenna winding to tune the AM band. There's likely at least one smaller winding on the ferrite rod you can use to connect to the antenna terminals of a radio. Have you made a box loop? I never bothered with ferrite rod antennas, because I figured a good sized loop would be a better performer. But I'd be curious about a side to side comparision. Frank Dresser |
Yodar & CW,
Multi-Stranded "LITZ" Wire will generally require fewer turns and produce a higher "Q" for a given Ferrite Rod and frequency range. Solid (single-Stranded) "Magnet" Wire will generally require more turns and produce a some what lower "Q" for a given Ferrite Rod and frequency range; than Litz Wire. Both Litz Wire and Magnet Wire are preferred over everyday Insulated Hook-Up Wire to wrap a coil on a Ferrite Rod for an Antenna. Generally, Insulated Hook-Up Wire would produce the lowest "Q" of the three types of wire. iane ~ RHF .. .. = = = "CW" = = = wrote in message news:hhYmb.25685$mZ5.115003@attbi_s54... Unless you don't have it then use magnet wire. You'll never know the difference. "Joe Strain" wrote in message m... Litz wire, a specially woven fabric insulated wire is required for Loopsticks SKYCRAFT electronics in Orlando has it at iirc $0.08/ft . Yodar On 26 Oct 2003 14:08:45 GMT, (Diverd4777) wrote: - anyone have any idea which type / gauge wire is best for a ferrite antenna ? |
That's not a bad price.................I have been using Litz wire, with
good results. Pete Joe Strain wrote in message m... Litz wire, a specially woven fabric insulated wire is required for Loopsticks SKYCRAFT electronics in Orlando has it at iirc $0.08/ft . Yodar On 26 Oct 2003 14:08:45 GMT, (Diverd4777) wrote: - anyone have any idea which type / gauge wire is best for a ferrite antenna ? |
FD,
If you are going to try the 'fully covered evenly spaced' wire wrapped Ferrite Rod Antenna (FRA). Try using nylon/poly Fishing Line as the non-electrical/non-magnetic spacing material. Start at one end with both the wire and the FishLine and tightly wind them as a 'pair' flat and evenly over the FRA. Usually, 100 LB FishLine works well. For some 'types' of FRA Material and FRA "Sizes" using one wire and two(2) FishLines (twice the space) will work better. Just a simple 'trick' to keep the Wire Coil Tight and Evenly Spaced. iane ~ RHF .. .. = = = "Frank Dresser" = = = wrote in message ... "CW" wrote in message news:hhYmb.25685$mZ5.115003@attbi_s54... Unless you don't have it then use magnet wire. You'll never know the difference. That's true. I have several radios with standard wire wrapped around the ferrite rods. Usually when they use standard wire, the turns are spaced widely enough to take up nearly the length of the rod. A wide wire spacing, about twice the thickness of the wire should reduce losses and increase the tuning frequency range, compared to close spaced wire. In practice, the tuning range problem will probably be more noticable. Just wrap a bunch of wire, spaced maybe 1/16 to 1/8 inch or so, over the length of the rod. This probably won't tune to the top of the AM band. Then remove turns until it tunes to the top when the cap is fully open. Frank Dresser |
Pete / Joe ; thanks for the advice !
Here's the URL for Skycroaft in Orlando...Litz wire source ( & probably more !) http://www.skycraftsurplus.com/ - Since I've got the loop wrapped in magnet wire already I'll try that first.. - really not critical for what i'm doing; I guess I could take some monofilament, spiral it around hte magnet wire in 1/2 / 1/4 inch spirals, rewrap it & maybe get the same effect as when using Litz wire.. - Wonder what they use for the Justice antenna . . ? Dan In article , "Pete KE9OA" writes: That's not a bad price.................I have been using Litz wire, with good results. Pete Joe Strain wrote in message om... Litz wire, a specially woven fabric insulated wire is required for Loopsticks SKYCRAFT electronics in Orlando has it at iirc $0.08/ft . Yodar On 26 Oct 2003 14:08:45 GMT, (Diverd4777) wrote: - anyone have any idea which type / gauge wire is best for a ferrite antenna ? |
Magnet wire is made of copper. But if you make a loop (coil) and run a
voltage through it it becomes a electro magnet. Lower gauge wire will give you more turns per inch. So you can pick up lower frequencys. Bill, N5NOB |
Bill Hennessy wrote: Magnet wire is made of copper. But if you make a loop (coil) and run a voltage through it it becomes a electro magnet. Lower gauge wire will give you more turns per inch. So you can pick up lower frequencys. Bill, N5NOB Wouldn't that be higher guage wire giving more turns per inch? Higher the gauge, smaller the wire size. Steve Holland, MI Drake R7, R8 and R8B |
"Diverd4777" wrote in message ... Hi Frank I bought a Radio Shack Loop antenna a while back ; works pretty well! - But I need a smaller, lighter A.M antenna for travel; the smaller & lighter the better; - hence the ferrite experiment. Already have a Sony AN-LP-1 works great for SWR Dan I see. A box loop still might be workable. They can be made collapsable or foldable. I saw an antique box loop in which the upper center support of the X telescoped into the lower center support and the side supports folded down. Pretty cool, but not so easy to fabricate with whatever is around the house. Still, a cardboard form maybe 4 inches wide and 1 foot or so on each side could be folded into a reasonably compact package. It should perform about the same as the RS loop. Or a piece of cardboard could be cut for a spiderweb winding. Just cut an odd number of notches about 1 -2 inches deep, spaced about 2-4 inches apart around the perimiter of a piece of cardboard. Maybe 8 or 10 turns, depending on your cap - but add a few more turns, so you can tune it in. A plastic dielectric cap is smaller and less fragile than a air dielectric cap and will be better for portable use. You don't need to spend alot of time trying to figure out which are the AM oscillator or AM antenna or the FM parts of the capacitor. Just figure out which are the common lugs and the cap lugs. You can wire up the all AM and FM lugs together for more total capacity. The higher total capacity will mean you need fewer turns for your antenna. Be sure to open all the half moon trimmers so you get the widest capacity range. Frank Dresser |
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