Planninc a car trip
 

I'm planning a long road trip in a couple of weeks. I planned on
driving primarily at night and I thought it would be interesting
to be able to listen to shortwave along the way.
So my idea is to take along my DX-390, sit it in my lap and twiddle the
knobs as I drive. I'll listen through an earpiece.

Anyway, the question is my antenna. I planned on taking a piece of
wire, maybe 8 feet long or so. I attach one end of it to the top of the
auto antenna that sticks out of the hood of my car and fasten it there
with a wire tie. I run it down the length of the antenna and fasten it
at the bottom with another wire tie. Run the remainder in through the
window and done.

So my questions a
1. Will this work?
2. Is a standard automotive antenna long enough. I can temperairly
lengthen it with a piece of stiff wire or something.
3. Is it better to attach it to the radio by clipping it onto the
telescoping antenna or the antenna input jack.

Thanks for your input.

"Finch" wrote in message
...
I'm planning a long road trip in a couple of weeks. I planned on
driving primarily at night and I thought it would be interesting
to be able to listen to shortwave along the way.
So my idea is to take along my DX-390, sit it in my lap and twiddle the
knobs as I drive. I'll listen through an earpiece.

Anyway, the question is my antenna. I planned on taking a piece of
wire, maybe 8 feet long or so. I attach one end of it to the top of the
auto antenna that sticks out of the hood of my car and fasten it there
with a wire tie. I run it down the length of the antenna and fasten it
at the bottom with another wire tie. Run the remainder in through the
window and done.

So my questions a
1. Will this work?
2. Is a standard automotive antenna long enough. I can temperairly
lengthen it with a piece of stiff wire or something.
3. Is it better to attach it to the radio by clipping it onto the
telescoping antenna or the antenna input jack.

Thanks for your input.

Anytime I have tried something similar to this, the radiated noise p/u from
the vehicle has been horrible. Once that wire gets inside (remember, it is
an antenna through out its length) it picks up all the uprocessor stuff from
the car's electrical system. The very best solution I found was a homebrew
active whip- length was not at all critical- mine ended up 3' long. The whip
and Z converter/preamp were attached to a magnet mount on the roof and the
coax with multiplexed power led in through the window- reception from MW
through 6M was excellent. This was the only time I have been able to monitor
tropical band while mobile.


--
Dale W4OP
for PAR Electronics, Inc.

"Finch" wrote in message
...

So my questions a
1. Will this work?
2. Is a standard automotive antenna long enough. I can temperairly
lengthen it with a piece of stiff wire or something.
3. Is it better to attach it to the radio by clipping it onto the
telescoping antenna or the antenna input jack.

Thanks for your input.

I don't think this arrangement would be practical especially at highway
speeds - the connections would likely come apart. Its also prone to noise
pickup and your lead-in wire will be very close to the vehicle body.

I think the standard antenna is long enough for casual listening and it
could be improved upon with an antenna tuner. I've used an HF receiver in
the car with the stock antenna (no tuner) with surprisingly good results.

The best approach would be to take the antenna coax off of the back of the
car radio and run it into the DX-390. You should be able to locate the
connectors and adapters for this at Radio Shack. I did this in a car I used
to drive and I also installed a coax switch so I could switch the antenna
back and forth between radios.

I don't know what the audio from the DX-390 is like but audio is also a
concern while mobile. You may need to go with a speaker mounted close to
the drivers position or run the audio back into the vehicles sound system.


Good Luck.

And please be careful as you twiddle the knobs while driving!
"Finch" wrote in message
...
I'm planning a long road trip in a couple of weeks. I planned on
driving primarily at night and I thought it would be interesting
to be able to listen to shortwave along the way.
So my idea is to take along my DX-390, sit it in my lap and twiddle the
knobs as I drive. I'll listen through an earpiece.

Anyway, the question is my antenna. I planned on taking a piece of
wire, maybe 8 feet long or so. I attach one end of it to the top of the
auto antenna that sticks out of the hood of my car and fasten it there
with a wire tie. I run it down the length of the antenna and fasten it
at the bottom with another wire tie. Run the remainder in through the
window and done.

So my questions a
1. Will this work?
2. Is a standard automotive antenna long enough. I can temperairly
lengthen it with a piece of stiff wire or something.
3. Is it better to attach it to the radio by clipping it onto the
telescoping antenna or the antenna input jack.

Thanks for your input.

Get a Sirius Satellite Receiver.

You can listen to all the major International Broadcasters on WRN,
Channel 115, in glorious hifi. Shortwave broadcasting isn't quite
dead yet, but the bedsores are pretty gross.

http://www.sirius.com/servlet/Conten...d=996089493678

On Mon, 05 Jul 2004 07:08:20 -0400, Finch wrote:

I'm planning a long road trip in a couple of weeks. I planned on
driving primarily at night and I thought it would be interesting
to be able to listen to shortwave along the way.
So my idea is to take along my DX-390, sit it in my lap and twiddle the
knobs as I drive. I'll listen through an earpiece.

Anyway, the question is my antenna. I planned on taking a piece of
wire, maybe 8 feet long or so. I attach one end of it to the top of the
auto antenna that sticks out of the hood of my car and fasten it there
with a wire tie. I run it down the length of the antenna and fasten it
at the bottom with another wire tie. Run the remainder in through the
window and done.

So my questions a
1. Will this work?
2. Is a standard automotive antenna long enough. I can temperairly
lengthen it with a piece of stiff wire or something.
3. Is it better to attach it to the radio by clipping it onto the
telescoping antenna or the antenna input jack.

Thanks for your input.

I don't have a satelite receiver, but I read recently in WRTH, which was
otherwise excited about the idea of satellite reception, that the audio
quality of the international broadcasters was lower than the other
stations.

David wrote in
:

Get a Sirius Satellite Receiver.

You can listen to all the major International Broadcasters on WRN,
Channel 115, in glorious hifi. Shortwave broadcasting isn't quite
dead yet, but the bedsores are pretty gross.

http://www.sirius.com/servlet/ContentServer?
pagename=Sirius/CachedPage&
c=ChannelAsset&cid=996089493678

On Mon, 05 Jul 2004 07:08:20 -0400, Finch wrote:

I'm planning a long road trip in a couple of weeks. I planned on
driving primarily at night and I thought it would be interesting
to be able to listen to shortwave along the way.
So my idea is to take along my DX-390, sit it in my lap and twiddle
the knobs as I drive. I'll listen through an earpiece.

Anyway, the question is my antenna. I planned on taking a piece of
wire, maybe 8 feet long or so. I attach one end of it to the top of
the auto antenna that sticks out of the hood of my car and fasten it
there with a wire tie. I run it down the length of the antenna and
fasten it at the bottom with another wire tie. Run the remainder in
through the window and done.

So my questions a
1. Will this work?
2. Is a standard automotive antenna long enough. I can temperairly
lengthen it with a piece of stiff wire or something.
3. Is it better to attach it to the radio by clipping it onto the
telescoping antenna or the antenna input jack.

As others have noted, running a long wire is probably not going
to work well in a car. Another alternative to using the radio's
built-in antenna or finding the connections from your car's
antenna would be a small mag-mount whip with coax. (You can put
a bit of plastic wrap under the magnet to keep it from scratching
your car's paint.)

My car that now has the Becker Mexico is currently in the shop
while my mechanic tries to figure out why the seemingly solid
antenna connection is going in and out. In order to enjoy the
radio before it went into the shop, and to show him how the
radio should be performing, I put my 2m 1/4-wave whip on the
car and got an adapter to connect it to the Becker. It worked
like a dream. When I put the radio in scan mode after sunset,
it was stopping on a station nearly every 20-40KHz on shortwave.
Longwave and medium-wave reception were also excellent. So that
might be another option for you.

Enjoy your trip--and drive safely!


Patty

Finch wrote in message ...
I'm planning a long road trip in a couple of weeks. I planned on
driving primarily at night and I thought it would be interesting
to be able to listen to shortwave along the way.
So my idea is to take along my DX-390, sit it in my lap and twiddle the
knobs as I drive. I'll listen through an earpiece.
snip.............................................. ...................

You will get much better reception if you put a mag-mount antenna on
the roof of the car and run the attached co-ax lead to the DX-390.
Get an adapter for the co-ax plug from Radio Shack. The easiest place
to find a mag-mount antenna is at a truck stop. They usually have
CB-type
mag mounts for $25.00 or so. You have to modify the coil so make sure
you
get an antenna where the coil is a good size where you can get at the
windings.
The CB coil is resonant at ~27 mhz and has to be modified for the SW
bands.
The easist way is to bypass the coil with a jumper wire across the
coil.
This is usually enough to give you an untuned whip which will work
fine on SW.
If you find one of the CB antennas with large coils you can replace
the CB coil
with a hand-wound coil of smaller wire and many turns. This will make
the
antenna broadly resonant in some part of the SW spectrum. If you
really want to boost performance you can put taps on various parts of
the coil but that may
be more than you have time to tackle right now.
Another quicker, better way is to get a BIG mag mount and a 10 mhz
whip
from a ham radio supplier, but that would cost more. Also, the antenna
acts as a
thief magnet and has to be stored in the trunk each time you park.
Another useful item for mobiling with a portable is a small FM
transmitter
designed for automobiles. You plug in an audio source switch it on,
and you can
hear your radio, casette, etc on you car radio with lots of volume.
Wal-Mart
has them for about $20. I found that on my setup, the SW7600G was a
bit short
on volume.
Modern car radios are buried so deep in the dashboard that it is
usually
quite a project to get at the Motorola plug at the end of the car
antenna lead, but that is another possibility. You would have to get a
3-foot extension and the correct adapter, but the car antenna works
fine and you wouldn't have the use of
the car radio.
To sum up
1. The cheapest way is to use your existing car antenna if you can
get at it. Adding a length of whip didn't seem to
help much.
If you do add a length get the 56" fine whips used
on amateur
2-meter antennas to keep the wind loading down
2. The next way is to get the CB mag-mount and modify it.
3. The best way is to get an amateur mobile antenna. Make sure the
total height does not get you whacking street power
and phone
lines or low bridges.
After trying all the above, I found the modified CB antenna the
best. It didn't stick up too high, used a smaller magnet, and was easy
to remove to the trunk, and with taps, was just about as good as the
ham antenna.
Considering the vast wasteland that is AM broadcasting, SW is
worth the trouble.
Sorry about the fragmented text: it looks perfect when typed: must
be some setting buried in Netscape.

On 5 Jul 2004 18:41:38 -0700, (ken) wrote:

Finch wrote in message ...
I'm planning a long road trip in a couple of weeks. I planned on
driving primarily at night and I thought it would be interesting
to be able to listen to shortwave along the way.
So my idea is to take along my DX-390, sit it in my lap and twiddle the
knobs as I drive. I'll listen through an earpiece.
snip.............................................. ...................

You will get much better reception if you put a mag-mount antenna on
the roof of the car and run the attached co-ax lead to the DX-390.
Get an adapter for the co-ax plug from Radio Shack. The easiest place
to find a mag-mount antenna is at a truck stop. They usually have
CB-type
mag mounts for $25.00 or so. You have to modify the coil so make sure
you
get an antenna where the coil is a good size where you can get at the
windings.
The CB coil is resonant at ~27 mhz and has to be modified for the SW
bands.
The easist way is to bypass the coil with a jumper wire across the
coil.
This is usually enough to give you an untuned whip which will work
fine on SW.
If you find one of the CB antennas with large coils you can replace
the CB coil
with a hand-wound coil of smaller wire and many turns. This will make
the
antenna broadly resonant in some part of the SW spectrum. If you
really want to boost performance you can put taps on various parts of
the coil but that may
be more than you have time to tackle right now.
Another quicker, better way is to get a BIG mag mount and a 10 mhz
whip
from a ham radio supplier, but that would cost more. Also, the antenna
acts as a
thief magnet and has to be stored in the trunk each time you park.
Another useful item for mobiling with a portable is a small FM
transmitter
designed for automobiles. You plug in an audio source switch it on,
and you can
hear your radio, casette, etc on you car radio with lots of volume.
Wal-Mart
has them for about $20. I found that on my setup, the SW7600G was a
bit short
on volume.
Modern car radios are buried so deep in the dashboard that it is
usually
quite a project to get at the Motorola plug at the end of the car
antenna lead, but that is another possibility. You would have to get a
3-foot extension and the correct adapter, but the car antenna works
fine and you wouldn't have the use of
the car radio.
To sum up
1. The cheapest way is to use your existing car antenna if you can
get at it. Adding a length of whip didn't seem to
help much.
If you do add a length get the 56" fine whips used
on amateur
2-meter antennas to keep the wind loading down
2. The next way is to get the CB mag-mount and modify it.
3. The best way is to get an amateur mobile antenna. Make sure the
total height does not get you whacking street power
and phone
lines or low bridges.
After trying all the above, I found the modified CB antenna the
best. It didn't stick up too high, used a smaller magnet, and was easy
to remove to the trunk, and with taps, was just about as good as the
ham antenna.
Considering the vast wasteland that is AM broadcasting, SW is
worth the trouble.
Sorry about the fragmented text: it looks perfect when typed: must
be some setting buried in Netscape.

Generally good advice. The question I have is regarding the mods to
the CB antenna - did it really make much of a difference with the coil
bypassed?

I have used my Icom R2 to listen to shortwave while mobile. Granted,
it's not a great performer on the sw bands (bandwidth is a bit wide)
however with a 19" magmount (2 meter 1/4 wave antenna) I've been able
to hear the major broadcasters. Does the '390 have memories? If so
it would be to your advantage to pre-program your favorites and just
hit a button or two versus fiddling with the tuning knob.

Have a fun trip,
Howard

Howard wrote:

On 5 Jul 2004 18:41:38 -0700, (ken) wrote:

Finch wrote in message ...
I'm planning a long road trip in a couple of weeks. I planned on
driving primarily at night and I thought it would be interesting
to be able to listen to shortwave along the way.
So my idea is to take along my DX-390, sit it in my lap and twiddle the
knobs as I drive. I'll listen through an earpiece.
snip.............................................. ...................

You will get much better reception if you put a mag-mount antenna on
the roof of the car and run the attached co-ax lead to the DX-390.
Get an adapter for the co-ax plug from Radio Shack. The easiest place
to find a mag-mount antenna is at a truck stop. They usually have
CB-type
mag mounts for $25.00 or so. You have to modify the coil so make sure
you
get an antenna where the coil is a good size where you can get at the
windings.
The CB coil is resonant at ~27 mhz and has to be modified for the SW
bands.
The easist way is to bypass the coil with a jumper wire across the
coil.
This is usually enough to give you an untuned whip which will work
fine on SW.
If you find one of the CB antennas with large coils you can replace
the CB coil
with a hand-wound coil of smaller wire and many turns. This will make
the
antenna broadly resonant in some part of the SW spectrum. If you
really want to boost performance you can put taps on various parts of
the coil but that may
be more than you have time to tackle right now.
Another quicker, better way is to get a BIG mag mount and a 10 mhz
whip
from a ham radio supplier, but that would cost more. Also, the antenna
acts as a
thief magnet and has to be stored in the trunk each time you park.
Another useful item for mobiling with a portable is a small FM
transmitter
designed for automobiles. You plug in an audio source switch it on,
and you can
hear your radio, casette, etc on you car radio with lots of volume.
Wal-Mart
has them for about $20. I found that on my setup, the SW7600G was a
bit short
on volume.
Modern car radios are buried so deep in the dashboard that it is
usually
quite a project to get at the Motorola plug at the end of the car
antenna lead, but that is another possibility. You would have to get a
3-foot extension and the correct adapter, but the car antenna works
fine and you wouldn't have the use of
the car radio.
To sum up
1. The cheapest way is to use your existing car antenna if you can
get at it. Adding a length of whip didn't seem to
help much.
If you do add a length get the 56" fine whips used
on amateur
2-meter antennas to keep the wind loading down
2. The next way is to get the CB mag-mount and modify it.
3. The best way is to get an amateur mobile antenna. Make sure the
total height does not get you whacking street power
and phone
lines or low bridges.
After trying all the above, I found the modified CB antenna the
best. It didn't stick up too high, used a smaller magnet, and was easy
to remove to the trunk, and with taps, was just about as good as the
ham antenna.
Considering the vast wasteland that is AM broadcasting, SW is
worth the trouble.
Sorry about the fragmented text: it looks perfect when typed: must
be some setting buried in Netscape.

Generally good advice. The question I have is regarding the mods to
the CB antenna - did it really make much of a difference with the coil
bypassed?

I have used my Icom R2 to listen to shortwave while mobile. Granted,
it's not a great performer on the sw bands (bandwidth is a bit wide)
however with a 19" magmount (2 meter 1/4 wave antenna) I've been able
to hear the major broadcasters. Does the '390 have memories? If so
it would be to your advantage to pre-program your favorites and just
hit a button or two versus fiddling with the tuning knob.

Have a fun trip,
Howard

It's easier/better to buy a magnet mounted whip antenna with no coil
than removing the coil from a CB antenna. Radio Shack has magnet whips
with no coil. The longer the better for shortwave use.


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Howard wrote in message . ..
On 5 Jul 2004 18:41:38 -0700, (ken) wrote:

Finch wrote in message ...
I'm planning a long road trip in a couple of weeks. I planned on
driving primarily at night and I thought it would be interesting
to be able to listen to shortwave along the way.
So my idea is to take along my DX-390, sit it in my lap and twiddle the
knobs as I drive. I'll listen through an earpiece.
snip.............................................. ...................

You will get much better reception if you put a mag-mount antenna on
the roof of the car and run the attached co-ax lead to the DX-390.
snip.............................................. ......................
Generally good advice. The question I have is regarding the mods to
the CB antenna - did it really make much of a difference with the coil
bypassed?

I have used my Icom R2 to listen to shortwave while mobile. Granted,
it's not a great performer on the sw bands (bandwidth is a bit wide)
however with a 19" magmount (2 meter 1/4 wave antenna) I've been able
to hear the major broadcasters. Does the '390 have memories? If so
it would be to your advantage to pre-program your favorites and just
hit a button or two versus fiddling with the tuning knob.

Have a fun trip,
Howard
.................................................. ..........................

The particular CB antenna I selected off a rack featured a 2" dia coil
with open windings of 16 ga. wire. The card featured a leggy blonde,
assorted lightening bolts, and a large title "1000 watts." In spite of
this, it was a well-made antenna. Because of the high-Q coil, jumping
across it improved signals at the lower part of the band, but not by
as much as I nad hoped, probably because of the 16 ga. winding.
Detaching the lower end of the winding and jumping from the top end
(the whip) to the bottom connector increased signal strength again.
When the coil was replaced with a close-wound enamelled 20 ga.
coil, the resonance was about 4 mhz. Taps on the coil selected by a
clip and wire wrapped around the coil (a la Outback) gave increased
gain on each band. At this point, I had enough gain, so I stopped
experimenting, although I did mull over various schemes to enable
band-switching while driving. This way leads to madness.
I recall that a simple 2-meter mag mount antenna gave fair results,
although it perked up considerably when the thin hustler 56"(?) from
the 5/8 antenna was used. But that would be too simple.

This is what I have used in my car for the past four years:

20-023 Clip-on antenna mount $14.99
20-006 Center-loaded telescoping whip antenna $9.99
278-250 BNC female to phono plug $3.49
274-330 RCA plug to 1/8 mono jack $1.94

All Radio Shack parts - make it yourself for about 30 bucks and
change. You can buy the same antenna made from the same Radio Shack
parts from the Tiny Tenna guy (on his web site it's called a Travel
Tenna) for thirty nine bucks and change if you don't feel like
spending the two minutes it takes to put the dopey thing together.

I have run my DX-398, ICF-2010 and 7600GR off of it. Works great day
and night. Have dx'd in the car with it on long trips and I don't
pick up any real engine noise using it.

(ken) wrote in message om...
Howard wrote in message . ..
On 5 Jul 2004 18:41:38 -0700, (ken) wrote:

Finch wrote in message ...
I'm planning a long road trip in a couple of weeks. I planned on
driving primarily at night and I thought it would be interesting
to be able to listen to shortwave along the way.
So my idea is to take along my DX-390, sit it in my lap and twiddle the
knobs as I drive. I'll listen through an earpiece.
snip.............................................. ...................

You will get much better reception if you put a mag-mount antenna on
the roof of the car and run the attached co-ax lead to the DX-390.
snip.............................................. ......................
Generally good advice. The question I have is regarding the mods to
the CB antenna - did it really make much of a difference with the coil
bypassed?

I have used my Icom R2 to listen to shortwave while mobile. Granted,
it's not a great performer on the sw bands (bandwidth is a bit wide)
however with a 19" magmount (2 meter 1/4 wave antenna) I've been able
to hear the major broadcasters. Does the '390 have memories? If so
it would be to your advantage to pre-program your favorites and just
hit a button or two versus fiddling with the tuning knob.

Have a fun trip,
Howard
.................................................. .........................

The particular CB antenna I selected off a rack featured a 2" dia coil
with open windings of 16 ga. wire. The card featured a leggy blonde,
assorted lightening bolts, and a large title "1000 watts." In spite of
this, it was a well-made antenna. Because of the high-Q coil, jumping
across it improved signals at the lower part of the band, but not by
as much as I nad hoped, probably because of the 16 ga. winding.
Detaching the lower end of the winding and jumping from the top end
(the whip) to the bottom connector increased signal strength again.
When the coil was replaced with a close-wound enamelled 20 ga.
coil, the resonance was about 4 mhz. Taps on the coil selected by a
clip and wire wrapped around the coil (a la Outback) gave increased
gain on each band. At this point, I had enough gain, so I stopped
experimenting, although I did mull over various schemes to enable
band-switching while driving. This way leads to madness.
I recall that a simple 2-meter mag mount antenna gave fair results,
although it perked up considerably when the thin hustler 56"(?) from
the 5/8 antenna was used. But that would be too simple.