More on that stupid auto SWR antenna.
 

See my earlier post entitled mobile antenna if you care to but this is the
jist of of all.
Road trip. Want to listen to SW. Need antenna.

Ok, how about this, let me compromise.
My original idea was to take a bit of wire, attach it to the auto's external
antenna at the top
and fasten it with a wire tie. Run it down the length of the auto antenna
and secure it at
the base with another wire tie and run the free end in the window to connect
to the SWR.
It was said in this NG that this would produce too much electrical
interferance from the auto.

The next idea was to purchase a magnetically mounted antenna for the trip.
It was said in this NG that
due to too many electrical componants that it may not work well for SW
reception.
It may also get pulled off the auto by the wind generated by a large truck
or what have you.

Ok. New idea. Take the original thought. Fasten a length of wire to the
existing auto antenna at the top and
secure it with a wire tie. Run it down the antenna and secure it at the
base with another wire tie.
At this point cut it and solder on a coax with the antenna wire to the
center conductor of the coax. Solder another wire to the shield and run it
to ground. Run the coax in the window and connect to the short wave
receiver.

Well, what do you thing. Might work?

All comments welcome and thanks.

Buy a 30 meter "Iron Horse" mobile amateur radio antenna for 16
bucks.....the recieve is wide enough to do a great job from 4 to 18
mhz...Its really durable! you can use it inside later during storms for
saftey as well . Fits on a standard CB bumper mount and is about 7 feet
high.


"Finch" wrote in message
...
See my earlier post entitled mobile antenna if you care to but this is the
jist of of all.
Road trip. Want to listen to SW. Need antenna.

Ok, how about this, let me compromise.
My original idea was to take a bit of wire, attach it to the auto's
external
antenna at the top
and fasten it with a wire tie. Run it down the length of the auto antenna
and secure it at
the base with another wire tie and run the free end in the window to
connect
to the SWR.
It was said in this NG that this would produce too much electrical
interferance from the auto.

The next idea was to purchase a magnetically mounted antenna for the trip.
It was said in this NG that
due to too many electrical componants that it may not work well for SW
reception.
It may also get pulled off the auto by the wind generated by a large truck
or what have you.

Ok. New idea. Take the original thought. Fasten a length of wire to the
existing auto antenna at the top and
secure it with a wire tie. Run it down the antenna and secure it at the
base with another wire tie.
At this point cut it and solder on a coax with the antenna wire to the
center conductor of the coax. Solder another wire to the shield and run
it
to ground. Run the coax in the window and connect to the short wave
receiver.

Well, what do you thing. Might work?

All comments welcome and thanks.

Finch:

the best way to figure out what works best is try a bunch of different
configurations,
taking the car / SWR on a small test drive at the same timne of day ( Night) to
check each one out..

& then make notes, so you can accuratly compare each configuration &
subsequent performance

Dan


In article , "Finch"
writes:

Subject: More on that stupid auto SWR antenna.
From: "Finch"
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2004 18:29:50 -0400

See my earlier post entitled mobile antenna if you care to but this is the
jist of of all.
Road trip. Want to listen to SW. Need antenna.

Ok, how about this, let me compromise.
My original idea was to take a bit of wire, attach it to the auto's external
antenna at the top
and fasten it with a wire tie. Run it down the length of the auto antenna
and secure it at
the base with another wire tie and run the free end in the window to connect
to the SWR.
It was said in this NG that this would produce too much electrical
interferance from the auto.

The next idea was to purchase a magnetically mounted antenna for the trip.
It was said in this NG that
due to too many electrical componants that it may not work well for SW
reception.
It may also get pulled off the auto by the wind generated by a large truck
or what have you.

Ok. New idea. Take the original thought. Fasten a length of wire to the
existing auto antenna at the top and
secure it with a wire tie. Run it down the antenna and secure it at the
base with another wire tie.
At this point cut it and solder on a coax with the antenna wire to the
center conductor of the coax. Solder another wire to the shield and run it
to ground. Run the coax in the window and connect to the short wave
receiver.

Well, what do you thing. Might work?

All comments welcome and thanks.

"Diverd4777" wrote in message
...

Finch:

the best way to figure out what works best is try a bunch of different
configurations,
taking the car / SWR on a small test drive at the same timne of day (
Night)
check each one out..

& then make notes, so you can accuratly compare each configuration &
subsequent performance


Hey Dan,
I agree with your approach. Research and trial and error are the best way
to really figure it out.
I like an experimant as well as the next person.
However, as my time is short, I had hoped to just get an answer as to what
is really best.
Your point is well taken.

Thanks and peace,

In article , Finch wrote:

The next idea was to purchase a magnetically mounted antenna for the trip.
It was said in this NG that
due to too many electrical componants that it may not work well for SW
reception.

Which components? The car's electronics shouldn't interfere with a
mag-mount antenna connected to the radio via a coaxial cable.

It may also get pulled off the auto by the wind generated by a large truck
or what have you.

Maybe one of those really big CB antennas would, but as Ken pointed out,
even a simple 5/8-wave amateur radio whip will be fine. Those are very
thin; there's hardly any wind loading on them. As I mentioned earlier,
even a 1/4-wave antenna can pull things in nicely. (Yes, we're talking
about 5/8 and 1/4 of 2 meters, but they'll still do the job for HF.
You may not squeeze every last bit of decibel out of the incoming
signal, but either of these would be a quick and easy solution.)

BTW, don't forget to put a couple layers of plastic wrap under the mag
mount to keep it from scratching the paint on the car. You don't want
so much plastic that the magnetic bond becomes weak, of course, but
you can get by with 2-3 layers okay.


Patty

On Thu, 15 Jul 2004 19:41:14 -0400, "Finch" wrote:


"Diverd4777" wrote in message
...

Finch:

the best way to figure out what works best is try a bunch of different
configurations,
taking the car / SWR on a small test drive at the same timne of day (
Night)
check each one out..

& then make notes, so you can accuratly compare each configuration &
subsequent performance


Hey Dan,
I agree with your approach. Research and trial and error are the best way
to really figure it out.
I like an experimant as well as the next person.
However, as my time is short, I had hoped to just get an answer as to what
is really best.
Your point is well taken.

Thanks and peace,


Hi OM,

Your wire sharing the same length of car antenna is OK. However, use
insulated wire so that the two radios (yours and the wife's) don't
make their own arbitrary DC circuit (especially if you plan to power
your radio off the car's battery).

Further, your idea of using coax to go from the base of the car's
antenna back into the cab is fine. In fact extend that idea and
simple strip the coax cable down to its inner conductor and use THAT
to mount to the car antenna. Then you don't have to solder anything,
and you have insulated wire from the git-go and shielded wire back
into the cab. Make sure your coax shield doesn't accidentally touch
the car's antenna though. If this sounds like too thick a wire, use
RG-174 which is quite skinny (0.125" OD) and the inner conductor even
smaller. Wrap the inner conductor (or any wire arrangement) around
the car antenna at about one turn for every inch it climbs. This will
make for a loose spiral wrap, but give you a little more exposed
antenna for your set.

And yes. test. You don't want to drive 500 miles listening to the
spark plugs. If this happens, you may need to insure you find ground
for your set to actually turn that shield into something effective.
If that helps, but doesn't completely do the job, you may need to pass
the shielded lead through a ferrite core several times (RG-174 does
this great). If your hear alternator whine, you may need an
automotive power filter. Radio Shack sells them with big hurkin'
coils for big hurkin' current. Your radio will hardly need that much
current, so you can use larger (more inductance but less current
capacity) coils to more effectively suppress the whine.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

"Finch" wrote in message
...
See my earlier post entitled mobile antenna if you care to but this is the
jist of of all.
Road trip. Want to listen to SW. Need antenna.


Modification of your original idea.. If you aren't going to be using your
AM/FM radio on the trip.. then you can use the antenna as one end of the
system, but, instead of just using a wire the length of the antenna, run
your coax (thinner is better in this case) up to the top of the antenna,
then, attach a small gauge wire (22 AWG, maybe smaller) to the center
conductor of the coax. Next, get one of those sticky cup holders and attach
it to the roof of the car way back in the back. Run your wire to that, and
tie it off. This will give you a sort of mini-sloper with a lot more
effective capture area. If you wanted to expand on the idea, you could get
one of those fiberglass whips like they put on bicycles and mount it to the
rear bumper and run the wire to that (be sure to leave a bit of slack to
allow for windage).

Brenda Ann Dyer wrote:

"Finch" wrote in message
...

See my earlier post entitled mobile antenna if you care to but this is the
jist of of all.
Road trip. Want to listen to SW. Need antenna.



Modification of your original idea.. If you aren't going to be using your
AM/FM radio on the trip.. then you can use the antenna as one end of the
system, but, instead of just using a wire the length of the antenna, run
your coax (thinner is better in this case) up to the top of the antenna,
then, attach a small gauge wire (22 AWG, maybe smaller) to the center
conductor of the coax. Next, get one of those sticky cup holders and attach
it to the roof of the car way back in the back. Run your wire to that, and
tie it off. This will give you a sort of mini-sloper with a lot more
effective capture area. If you wanted to expand on the idea, you could get
one of those fiberglass whips like they put on bicycles and mount it to the
rear bumper and run the wire to that (be sure to leave a bit of slack to
allow for windage).



Hmmmmmmm. I LIKE that.

See my earlier post entitled mobile antenna if you care to but this is the
jist of of all.
Road trip. Want to listen to SW. Need antenna.

Theres always this option:

- rent a flat bed trailer & Pull it along behing the car.
- Connect the SWR to a coax that goes out to the trailer
- Assemble a small elephant cage antenna on the trailer
- Hook the Co-ax up to the Antenna array..

Travel on Blue Highways to reduce RF..

( & That should do it.. )

Dan / NYC


In article , "Brenda Ann Dyer"
writes:

Subject: More on that stupid auto SWR antenna.
From: "Brenda Ann Dyer"
Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 12:22:08 +0900


"Finch" wrote in message
...
See my earlier post entitled mobile antenna if you care to but this is the
jist of of all.
Road trip. Want to listen to SW. Need antenna.


Modification of your original idea.. If you aren't going to be using your
AM/FM radio on the trip.. then you can use the antenna as one end of the
system, but, instead of just using a wire the length of the antenna, run
your coax (thinner is better in this case) up to the top of the antenna,
then, attach a small gauge wire (22 AWG, maybe smaller) to the center
conductor of the coax. Next, get one of those sticky cup holders and attach
it to the roof of the car way back in the back. Run your wire to that, and
tie it off. This will give you a sort of mini-sloper with a lot more
effective capture area. If you wanted to expand on the idea, you could get
one of those fiberglass whips like they put on bicycles and mount it to the
rear bumper and run the wire to that (be sure to leave a bit of slack to
allow for windage).

In article , "-=jd=-"
writes:

Subject: More on that stupid auto SWR antenna.
From: "-=jd=-"
Date: 16 Jul 2004 14:13:43 GMT

On Fri 16 Jul 2004 09:39:06a, (Diverd4777) wrote in
message :


See my earlier post entitled mobile antenna if you care to but this is
the jist of of all.
Road trip. Want to listen to SW. Need antenna.

Theres always this option:

- rent a flat bed trailer & Pull it along behing the car.
- Connect the SWR to a coax that goes out to the trailer
- Assemble a small elephant cage antenna on the trailer
- Hook the Co-ax up to the Antenna array..

Travel on Blue Highways to reduce RF..

( & That should do it.. )

Dan / NYC



Bull$h1t!

You don't need an "elephant" cage. You only need one big enough for a
medium-size monkey (one from the amazon delta would do fine)

- But them Amazon Monkeys been exposed to Cosmic rays from Them Flyin saucers,
- stand 50 feet tall
- Thats where the expression " Going Ape**** " came from..

and wouldn't
require renting a big flat-bed. You could probably get by with a wood 2x4
arrangement hanging out the trunk. Just be sure to hang a red rag-flag on
the furthest point aft.

- Wouldn't support a cage for them Flyin Saucer Amazon Monkeys though..
- have to get heavy duty shocks too!
Dalm thing takes a dump;
& need mor'n a red Flag . . .



"Elephant cage".... Sheesh...


-=jd=-