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.

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.

On Sat, 17 Jan 2004 21:12:26 -0600, Dan P.
wrote:

On 18 Jan 2004 02:54:47 GMT, lex (Nobody You Know)
wrote:

wrote:


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?


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.


Thanks for the replies....that will hold me till next weekend when I
figure out how to properly ground my rig and determine the right wire
length for the Radio Shack antenna. We're expecting some rain tonite
so I think I'll just wrap the end in a plastic bag and set it outside
my window. The 20 foot speaker wire does work great....maybe that
will be a better solution than the long bare copper wire from Radio
Shack. BTW, I thought I hit money earlier tonite when I heard Radio
Vietnam come in clear as a bell......then I found out its a relay out
of Canada :-(
---------------

Remove 24 to reply.
My recommendation would be to ground the antenna and not the radio.
String a wire, connect the center conductor of coaxial cable to the
antenna and the braid to ground then route the coax indoors to your
radio. Use a 1/8 inch phone plug with the center conductor to the pin
and the braid to the 'ground'.

Don't be too dismayed about only hearing the relay station - use of a
relay station is not uncommon and as time moves on you'll capture your
fair share of stations that do come from the 'country of origin'.

Howard

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-}

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.

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.

"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.

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.

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

It was't until the bigger antenna that I
began
to hear signals mentioned here in the group and from the mags.

Maybe 'preconceived' (from the article)......I'm not just saying that either
Jim. What's happening? Are you getting BCB on shortwave or other way around,
or what.

I feel sooooooo fortunate living where I do.:-)