My backyard is limited in length. The lot is 86 feet long. My question is,
how long a wire should I use to have a good shortwave antenna that will fit
in my yard. I know optimum is around 100 feet but I can't accommodate that
length. If it passes over the house does it matter how much space there is
between the wire and the roof of the house?

Pierre

See http://www.anarc.org/naswa/badx/ante...e_antenna.html

Height is much more important than length. I generally don't bother with
a horizontal run of more than 30 feet or so. For faint signal reception,
a moderate length antenna away from houses and power lines is better
than a bigger antenna near noise sources.

Peter wrote:
My backyard is limited in length. The lot is 86 feet long. My
question is,
how long a wire should I use to have a good shortwave antenna that
will fit
in my yard. I know optimum is around 100 feet but I can't accommodate
that
length. If it passes over the house does it matter how much space
there is
between the wire and the roof of the house?

-jpd

John Doty wrote:

See http://www.anarc.org/naswa/badx/ante...e_antenna.html

Height is much more important than length. I generally don't bother with
a horizontal run of more than 30 feet or so. For faint signal reception,
a moderate length antenna away from houses and power lines is better
than a bigger antenna near noise sources.

Funny you should say that. My 'Doty-L' (URL-above) is about 30-ft long
and 30-ft high. It's located in the backyard away from the house with
100-ft of coax lead-in on the ground to the receiver. It's the best
thing I ever did for reducing the domestic noise in the receiver.


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My question is,
how long a wire should I use to have a good shortwave antenna that will fit
in my yard.

Two things. Firstly, depending on the radio you're using, you may not want even
86 feet of wire, since it may cause overload on stronger signals. With a
portable, 50 feet might be too much.
Secondly, ANY amount of wire that is up as high as you can get it but away from
powerlines (for safety AND noise/interference reasons) will be a good antenna.
86 feet is a lot to work with, so consider yourself lucky, see how high you can
get it up there, and have fun experimenting with antennas! :-)
Linus

GrtPmpkin32 schrieb:


Secondly, ANY amount of wire that is up as high as you can get it but away from
powerlines (for safety AND noise/interference reasons) will be a good antenna.

....and sometimes a good lightning arrestor.
So have a look on lightning protection.

Two antenna is a good bet;
One ~30 feet for strong stations,

- Then the Longer one for faint, distant ones..

Dan


My backyard is limited in length. The lot is 86 feet long. My question is,
how long a wire should I use to have a good shortwave antenna that will fit
in my yard. I know optimum is around 100 feet but I can't accommodate that
length. If it passes over the house does it matter how much space there is
between the wire and the roof of the house?

Pierre

Peter wrote:

My backyard is limited in length. The lot is 86 feet long. My question is,
how long a wire should I use to have a good shortwave antenna that will fit
in my yard. I know optimum is around 100 feet but I can't accommodate that
length. If it passes over the house does it matter how much space there is
between the wire and the roof of the house?

Pierre




Can you bend it so you can get more length if you need it. Hieght
matters but mine works well at about 17 feet about the ground.
Have a look under antennas at the AMANDX site below. Some of the info
could be usefull

--
73 and Best of DX
Shawn Axelrod

Visit the AMANDX DX site with info for the new or experienced listener:

http://www.angelfire.com/mb/amandx/index.html

REMEMBER ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN HEAR FOREVER

I can bend it a bit. I am using the Drake R8B radio.

Is 12 inches above the roof of the house enough to be away from
interference?


Pierre
"The Axelrods" wrote in message
...


Peter wrote:

My backyard is limited in length. The lot is 86 feet long. My question
is,
how long a wire should I use to have a good shortwave antenna that will
fit
in my yard. I know optimum is around 100 feet but I can't accommodate
that
length. If it passes over the house does it matter how much space there
is
between the wire and the roof of the house?

Pierre




Can you bend it so you can get more length if you need it. Hieght
matters but mine works well at about 17 feet about the ground.
Have a look under antennas at the AMANDX site below. Some of the info
could be usefull

--
73 and Best of DX
Shawn Axelrod

Visit the AMANDX DX site with info for the new or experienced listener:

http://www.angelfire.com/mb/amandx/index.html

REMEMBER ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN HEAR FOREVER

Peter wrote:
I can bend it a bit. I am using the Drake R8B radio.

Is 12 inches above the roof of the house enough to be away from
interference?

Probably not. Unless your house is unusually free of
electrical/electronic gadgets, above the house is bad.