On Sat, 17 Jan 2004 23:41:58 -0600, Dan P.
wrote:

snip

As a secondary question, I don't need my entire lead from the antenna
to be coax, do I? The Radio Shack antenna kit gives you lots of bare
copper wire (antenna), then an unshielded sold core wire as a
lead....and also a thin insulated wire (about a foot) that fits
between the window and sill. Can I run a coax off that thin insulated
wire? And if so, does the coax need to be a particular length? I'm
thinking that the coax would be entirely indoors so I can use that
thin wire that goes between the window and sill.

Thanks for the help.
---------------

Remove 24 to reply.

If you aren't going to use coax for the entire feedline then I'd
suggest just not using it. Don't mean for that to sound flip, but you
lose the advantage of it if you do as you describe. The two reasons
for using coax a
1) shield the feedline from noise in the 'near field' of the feedline
and
2) prevent your feedline from becoming part of the antenna.

If you aren't facing a noise problem just go ahead with the materials
you have now and have a blast with the hobby. The 7600 really doesn't
need much more than 30 - 40 feet of wire to peform well. In fact, I
had used mine with an ungrounded wire for quite some time and logged
quite a few stations - however, living in an urban environment I also
had a lot of noise and found that grounding and use of a coax feedline
reduced the noise. It won't usually totally eliminate noise but does
noticeably reduce it. The length of coax to use is what reaches from
your outdoor antenna to your indoor radio - no magic, no formulas just
cut to fit.

I'm attaching a few url's that give some good info; take the time to
read and digest them and don't feel afraid to ask further questions.
Check your local library and see if they have a copy of the ARRL
Antenna Handbook; while the 'be all and end all" of antennas it is a
good source of information and I think the illustrations will go a
long way to familiarizing you with the things that I and others are
tyring to put forward with words.

http://www.palacenet.net/home/mules/antenna.html
shows an 'Inverted L' antenna

http://dxworld.com/dxnews.html#ANT
bunches of articles on antennas

http://www.hard-core-dx.com/nordicdx...und/index.html
more bunches of articles on antennas

http://stephan.win31.de/sony7600.htm
a nice history of the 7600 radio - the first model looks soooo
different than the GR!

Oh, one other important thing ............ don't forget to allow some
time between reading about and playing with antennas to do some
shortwave listening 8-}