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Stupid Antenna Question
Now get a few hundred feet of that wire and run it around your entire back
yard as high as you can get it. You will again notice better reception! "Dan P." wrote in message ... Took delivery of a Sony 7600 GR yesterday and am now experimenting with external antennas. I purchased the Radio Shack kit but haven't installed it yet (BTW, it's now just $4.99). Right now I've got 20 feet of speaker wire soldered to a plug that goes into the external antenna jack. Anyway the wire goes out the bottom of a window and attaches to a wood fence. When the radio is not in use I unplug the wire. I guess I'm concerned about the wire that's inside my listening room....it's not attached to anything but is it a lightening magnet in the event of a storm? Could I get an electrical discharge inside my house from the 20 feet of wire that is stretched outside? Very obviously, I know next to nothing regarding electricity, though I have learned to use the solder iron effectively :-) BTW, from my experimentation so far, this simple stretched speaker wire is a noticeable improvement over the whip/reel antenna you get with the unit. --------------- Remove 24 to reply. |
#2
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There is always that chance. There are gas discharge lamps for outside
antennas so they can safely route static to ground. Best bet in bad weather is to disconnect the radio until it passes. "Dan P." wrote in message ... On Sat, 17 Jan 2004 22:42:21 GMT, "Jim Douglas" wrote: Now get a few hundred feet of that wire and run it around your entire back yard as high as you can get it. You will again notice better reception! Reading too much of google can be a curse....I've read alot of stuff front end overload and that a portable can't handle a real long longwire....that's why I started with a 20 ft. wire. "Dan P." wrote in message .. . Took delivery of a Sony 7600 GR yesterday and am now experimenting with external antennas. I purchased the Radio Shack kit but haven't installed it yet (BTW, it's now just $4.99). Right now I've got 20 feet of speaker wire soldered to a plug that goes into the external antenna jack. Anyway the wire goes out the bottom of a window and attaches to a wood fence. When the radio is not in use I unplug the wire. I guess I'm concerned about the wire that's inside my listening room....it's not attached to anything but is it a lightening magnet in the event of a storm? Could I get an electrical discharge inside my house from the 20 feet of wire that is stretched outside? Very obviously, I know next to nothing regarding electricity, though I have learned to use the solder iron effectively :-) BTW, from my experimentation so far, this simple stretched speaker wire is a noticeable improvement over the whip/reel antenna you get with the unit. --------------- Remove 24 to reply. |
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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-} |
#6
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With that advice and a 7600, he will be able to get everything out there.
All at the same time, no matter where it is tuned. "Jim Douglas" wrote in message news:hTiOb.75118$sv6.169531@attbi_s52... Now get a few hundred feet of that wire and run it around your entire back yard as high as you can get it. You will again notice better reception! "Dan P." wrote in message ... Took delivery of a Sony 7600 GR yesterday and am now experimenting with external antennas. I purchased the Radio Shack kit but haven't installed it yet (BTW, it's now just $4.99). Right now I've got 20 feet of speaker wire soldered to a plug that goes into the external antenna jack. Anyway the wire goes out the bottom of a window and attaches to a wood fence. When the radio is not in use I unplug the wire. I guess I'm concerned about the wire that's inside my listening room....it's not attached to anything but is it a lightening magnet in the event of a storm? Could I get an electrical discharge inside my house from the 20 feet of wire that is stretched outside? Very obviously, I know next to nothing regarding electricity, though I have learned to use the solder iron effectively :-) BTW, from my experimentation so far, this simple stretched speaker wire is a noticeable improvement over the whip/reel antenna you get with the unit. --------------- Remove 24 to reply. |
#7
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On Sun, 18 Jan 2004 12:57:05 -0600, Dan P.
wrote: Thanks a bunch, Howard. Those look like great links. I may go ahead and use the coax as a feed line, but I'll do further research first on the links you listed. One problem is fitting the coax between my window and sill.....I'm not crazy about doing any drilling into my brick so I'll have to consider this option further. --------------- Remove 24 to reply. I now understand your dilemma with bringing in your feedline. Do you have an attic vent? That is how I have settled on bringing in my cables; I don't use much more cable (about 10 feet) and by that time in an antenna installation an easy method (that works) is always welcome. From there I bring the cable through a hole in the ceiling, n a closet, and then route to the radio. Also, you should consider using RG-6 75 ohm coax (0.266" dia) as in regard to signal loss it is as good as the thicker (0.405" dia) and is much easier to work with and comes with connectors installed. I do know there are 'F' to PL-259 adapters if you chose a manufactured antenna (such as Alpha Delta, Antenna Supermarket etc) and there is also an 'F' to 1/8inch phone plug adapter that will connect to your radio. Stick around the newsgroup and inbetween the political tripe that get's posted and the usual usenet.spam.everywhere there is useful information floating around. |
#8
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"Nobody You Know" wrote in message ... wrote: While NOTHING can stop a direct lightning hit, dangling the indoor end of your antenna inside a thick glass jar should allow static discharge spitzensparken to be harmlessly expended. That is why radio stations have a few dozen backup transmitters. The go through that many in a year. If you believe this, I have some oceanfront property in Utah you might be interested in. |
#9
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I had about 150' running into the DX398 and it was OK, maybe I did
"overload". I certainly go much better reception after the bigger antenna, I also had a 30' in the beginning. It was't until the bigger antenna that I began to hear signals mentioned here in the group and from the mags. "Dan P." wrote in message ... On Sat, 17 Jan 2004 22:42:21 GMT, "Jim Douglas" wrote: Now get a few hundred feet of that wire and run it around your entire back yard as high as you can get it. You will again notice better reception! Reading too much of google can be a curse....I've read alot of stuff front end overload and that a portable can't handle a real long longwire....that's why I started with a 20 ft. wire. "Dan P." wrote in message .. . Took delivery of a Sony 7600 GR yesterday and am now experimenting with external antennas. I purchased the Radio Shack kit but haven't installed it yet (BTW, it's now just $4.99). Right now I've got 20 feet of speaker wire soldered to a plug that goes into the external antenna jack. Anyway the wire goes out the bottom of a window and attaches to a wood fence. When the radio is not in use I unplug the wire. I guess I'm concerned about the wire that's inside my listening room....it's not attached to anything but is it a lightening magnet in the event of a storm? Could I get an electrical discharge inside my house from the 20 feet of wire that is stretched outside? Very obviously, I know next to nothing regarding electricity, though I have learned to use the solder iron effectively :-) BTW, from my experimentation so far, this simple stretched speaker wire is a noticeable improvement over the whip/reel antenna you get with the unit. --------------- Remove 24 to reply. |
#10
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I had about 150' running into the DX398 and it was OK
120 ft. 'always' goes into my 398. Flip a switch, the A/D sloper/ or another and a little over 600 ft. I have had no frontend overload (continously)...that is when you use your 'gain.' Remember:The Higher the better :-D |
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