Shortwave Antenna
 

Hi, i own a IC-R5 scanner and if i scan in the 150Khz - 20Mhz area on
AM i can pick up shortwave radio, however its not very clear the
clearest ive got is The Voice Of Russia World Service which i can
recive on 6.160 AM, i was wondering if a bigger antenna will improve
my reception, or as my scanner is not really designed for shortwave
listening i shouldnt bother, im in the UK and would be prepared to
fork out some cash for a shortwave reciver but i dont really know
anywhere in the UK that sells them!, also i was wondering where i
could find a list of frequencys for shortwave stations for the UK.

Any advice would be welcomed
Thanx

Hi I am a total newbie at this.

I have an Icom PCR-100 and I can get shortwave just fine, so I am sure you
should be okay with a good antenna.

As far as shortwave broadcasting frequencies goes I use

http://hfradio.org/swbc/
and
http://www.anarc.org/naswa/swlguide/

I have just made my second antenna and it works great. (thanks to all that
helped)

I took about 80 feet of speaker wire (2 conducter) and hung it on my fence
in my yard.

I then hooked into my reciever via appropriate connectors.

There are some great webpages out there that have all the info you need to
make your own antenna.

One of them is
http://www.hard-core-dx.com/index.php?topic=antennas
and
http://www.angelfire.com/mb/amandx/index.html

HTH

Good Luck!


"{FireArm}" wrote in message
om...
Hi, i own a IC-R5 scanner and if i scan in the 150Khz - 20Mhz area on
AM i can pick up shortwave radio, however its not very clear the
clearest ive got is The Voice Of Russia World Service which i can
recive on 6.160 AM, i was wondering if a bigger antenna will improve
my reception, or as my scanner is not really designed for shortwave
listening i shouldnt bother, im in the UK and would be prepared to
fork out some cash for a shortwave reciver but i dont really know
anywhere in the UK that sells them!, also i was wondering where i
could find a list of frequencys for shortwave stations for the UK.

Any advice would be welcomed
Thanx

Hi from Ken,
"{FireArm}" wrote in message
om...
Hi, i own a IC-R5 scanner and if i scan in the 150Khz - 20Mhz area on
AM i can pick up shortwave radio, however its not very clear the
clearest ive got is The Voice Of Russia World Service which i can
recive on 6.160 AM, i was wondering if a bigger antenna will improve
my reception, or as my scanner is not really designed for shortwave
listening i shouldnt bother, im in the UK and would be prepared to
fork out some cash for a shortwave reciver but i dont really know
anywhere in the UK that sells them!, also i was wondering where i
could find a list of frequencys for shortwave stations for the UK.

Any advice would be welcomed
Thanx

Buy a copy of the "Practical Wireless", or "Shortwave Magazine" ( you should
find them in "Smiths" ).
Or you could get your newsagent to order you a copy of either mag ( they
come out each month ).
There are lots of local radio suppliers listed in both these mags ( also
private ads in the back ).

Regards your question for an improvement to your whip antenna.
You could try wrapping a few turns of insulated wire around the rubber duck
on your radio and spreading the rest out about 10 to 20ft along the ceiling
( close to a window if possible).
This should help a little, but as you say the 'ICOM R5' is not a dedicated
HF short wave radio.
Hope the above helps............cheers, Ken, G4KIR.


---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.547 / Virus Database: 340 - Release Date: 02/12/2003

SNIP
im in the UK and would be prepared to
fork out some cash for a shortwave reciver but i dont really know
anywhere in the UK that sells them!, also i was wondering where i
could find a list of frequencys for shortwave stations for the UK.

Any advice would be welcomed
Thanx

Here is one place that sells all sorts of sw and sw accessories in the UK.

http://www.nevadaradio.co.uk/index.html

In article , FireArm44
@hotmail.com says...
Hi, i own a IC-R5 scanner and if i scan in the 150Khz - 20Mhz area on
AM i can pick up shortwave radio, however its not very clear the
clearest ive got is The Voice Of Russia World Service which i can
recive on 6.160 AM, i was wondering if a bigger antenna will improve
my reception, or as my scanner is not really designed for shortwave
listening i shouldnt bother, im in the UK and would be prepared to
fork out some cash for a shortwave reciver but i dont really know
anywhere in the UK that sells them!, also i was wondering where i
could find a list of frequencys for shortwave stations for the UK.

I can't help you much regarding sources in the UK for receivers.
However, on the antenna aspect of your question....

By and large, the longer the wire you can put up, and the higher you can
get it, the better. And you want to get it outside if at all possible.
You MAY also want to spend a few bucks and get an amplified antenna, but
better to start with just stringing up a wire outside the house and see
how much of an improvement you can get.

Also, it helps to know who is transmitting, when they're on the air and
where they're beaming (directing) their signal. My #1 favorite tool for
getting that information is a magazine called "Monitoring Times." It's
published here in the US but carries information about broadcasters
beaming anywhere on the planet. An electronic version, distributed in
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format as "MT Express," is available for downloading
each month as it's published, so you wouldn't have to worry about
overseas postage costs. Visit www.monitoringtimes.com for details.

I also recommend picking up a copy of the book, "Passport to World Band
Radio." You should be able to find a copy through any bookstore, or you
can order via www.passband.com direct from the publisher. It contains a
wealth of information about shortwave listening in general, plus contact
information for most shortwave broadcasters -- so you know how to get
their schedules, send in your reception reports, etc.

For SWL information specific to your area, you may want to search for
some regional discussion groups on Yahoo! Groups
(http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/) that address your specific needs. And
please consider this an invitation to visit the two radio monitoring
groups listed in my signature.

Hope this helps! Let me know if there's anything else I can do to help.

--

-- //Steve//

Steve Silverwood, KB6OJS
Fountain Valley, CA
Email:

Please visit the following sites:

American Shortwave Listening Club (ASWLC)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aswlc

Southern California Area DXers
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scads

Steve Walford wrote:
Anyone willing to give advice on shortwave antenna for SWL

I live in the UK and have a very small garden, so any advice
regarding

suppliers should take this into account

Anyone any experiance of Howes AA2 active antenna kit



Steve

Unfortunatly the howes AA2 is not being made any more I think. I think
C M Howes who made radio kits closed down some time ago. The only place
I could find that does sell these (presumably they bought the remaining
stocks) was here;

http://www.wsplc.com/acatalog/Kits_Howes.html

I don't know how "active" or "new" that page is or if it's another dead
page however.

SP

Incidentally for anyone who already owns a Howes AA2 amplifier I have
some (incomplete) information here (if you are trying to connect it all
up!)

Frequency range=150khz - 30 Mhz
Power supply = 12-14V DC

On the circuit board:

Link "LK3" is for coxial powering. Do not link this if you are going to
use direct powering (i.e. on pins "E" and "+VE").

Link "LK2" increases the gain of the module; a switch can be used but
the wires must be no more than 1" (25mm) or so.

Link "LK1" should be made if a diapole ariel is in use rather than a
single wire.

Pins "A" and "B" are the pins to which to connect a diapole ariel. If
you are using a single-wire ariel, connect to pin "W". Each part of the
diapole ariel (the 2 wires connected to "A" and "B") should be about 3
to 4 ft long. A telescopic ariel could be connected to pin "W" if you
are using a single wire ariel.

Pin "E" is to power the unit, earth (0V); Pin "+VE" is the positive
power supply pin; the unit needs 12 to 14V.

Pins "OP" (output) and "E" (earth) is for a coxial cable to supply the
unit's output for connecting to a radio.

Coax powering the AA2 module can be done too. The power is fed up the
same coax is used for the signals coming out of the unit (the "OP" and
"E" pins). This requires a capacitor to do this (Disc capacitor "103").


List of components:

R1 (1M5)
R2 (82k)
R3 (330R)
R4 (1k2)
R5 (270R)
R6 (270R)
R7 (2k2)
R8 (10R)
R9 (47R)
L3 (inductor, two red bands, brown band, silver band, green body)
C1 (1nf, Marked 102)
C2,C3,C4,C5,C6,C7 (0.1uF, marked 103)
C9 (.1uF marked 104)
C8* (100uF) - electrolytic make sure it is fitted the right way round!
TR1 - BF245 (FET). The type number is marked on the transistor.
TR2 - RF Power transistor 2N4427.
L1 - Inductor, two sets of cables - 3 turns.
L2 - 40 turns of enammelled wire

SP