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"starman" wrote in message ... Dave wrote: I am using a DX-402 (aka Sangean ATS 505). I would be surprised if it had a balanced antenna input, and have been thinking about just clipping the external antenna to my whip after all. I hooked 20 feet of 300 ohm twinlead to a 300/75 ohm transformer and miniplug last night and plugged it in, but the signal strength was about half of what my whip gives me. Therefore, the change in plans. It would be a mistake to connect a good external antenna directly to the whip. The receiver will almost certainly overload. You know the symptoms for overloading now. If you build the low noise inverted-L, the coax can be connected to the external antenna jack with a mini plug. If it wasn't much worse than what I am dealing with right now, I can live with it. Especially if I buy or build an antenna tuner, which I am planning to add in one way or another. Let me ask you this, what makes the inverted L so good for noise? I am taking what you say seriously, but if I install the antenna on top of the roof and run it down the other side of the house it will be quite close to our A/C compressor, which I expect to become a significant source of EMI. What if I just ran it along the ridge of the house and attached it to coax up *there*, before running the coax down the side of the house and grounding the shield to the grounding rod? Seems like that would eliminate a great deal of EMI from the A/C compressor, which I cannot move. I was planning on running the vertical portion of twinlead that went from ground level/grounding rod/coax up to the eaves over the steel siding, but I could just as easily run the coax up the side of the house, which would put all of the twinlead above the steel siding. Still not "out in the open" but probably the best I can do. Wifey doesn't want anything that obviously says "Hi there, I'm an antenna!" It's funny how women have an aversion to antennas. Must be an esthetic thing. :-) Wife read your comments and laughed. She says that if women designed antennas they would be a lot prettier. Probably Modern Art, if I know her. I am beginning to consider running the coax around to the end of the house and up that side, and laying the twinlead along the ridge of the roof from one end to the other. That would be a up a lot higher and a lot more "out in the open." The horizontal section (single wire) of an inverted-L could also run along the roof ridge. The vertical downlead wire would connect to one end of the horizontal section and run down the end wall of the house to the ground. The balun would be located near the ground next to a ground rod. The coax would go from the balun to the receiver. That's the design of the low noise inverted-L except it's better to locate the antenna away from the house when you can. Away from the house is not possible. Even if it was, that would put it near the power lines. How would I build a balun? (Websites/links?) No problem with the questions. It's nice to see an interesting on topic thread for a change. Thanks for the encouragement. I'm not yet sure what I will end up doing, but I want to make the best decision possible. Gotta go. Wife has to get up at 5:00 and I am supposed to get up first and fix breakfast. Long day tomorrow. I pulled up the grounding rod today (using a car jack to lift it out) and then told my wife what I had done. She asked what it was there for, and why didn't we still need it. Told her the TV antenna used to be connected to it, but since we moved that it wasn't being used. Now I need to install another grounding rod for the TV antenna in it's new location. Wasn't thinking when I put it there and didn't ground it. It's not hooked up anyway. We haven't even watched any broadcast programs on that TV in years, using the small one with an independant antenna in the bedroom instead. The big one is just used for watching DVD's. Thanks for the help. Dave |
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