= = = "Michael Lawson" wrote in message
= = = ...
I have a confession to make; I've always wanted an outdoor
antenna, but I was never either allowed to (when I was a kid)
or wasn't pratical do run one. Well, I now have the ability
to run one outside, but there are some questions I have about
some of the gagetry that is available these days.

Since I'm planning on running a random wire until I can figure
out a more permanent location for a trap antenna that I'll
build (assuming that I still have that old article from Pop Comm
(or was it Audio?) lying around), I'm not so concerned about
the antenna itself as some of the other goodies.

First, the coax. I noticed that Rat Shack was running a special
on their RG-58U coax for $0.11/ft, but I also know that RG-8 is
has better attenuation numbers. My run of coax is about
60-70 ft or so (at least initially, I'll probably remove some of
the built-in slack in my estimates once I'm satisfied with where
the antenna will be). Should I worry about attenuation for the
HF bands enough to use the RG-8 over the RG-58??

Second, a lightning arrestor. Are those Alpha Delta Transitraps
as good as advertised, or should I stick with a regular gas
discharge variety??

Third, has anyone run an external antenna to their Sat 800?? I'm
curious as to your setup, since it's a plastic case and the old
ground connection that I was used to on my old Icom R-70
isn't around, so I was wondering if anyone bothers to try to
ground the outer jacket of the coax. (Yeah, I know that that
ground on the R-70 was for the casing, and that this means we'll
open a can of worms here, but I figure I'd ask anyway.)

--Mike L.


MTL,

Concerning an External Antenna for the Grundig Satellit 800
Millennium Radio here are a few Posting/Messages to Read:

Grundig Satellit 800 M - Whip Antenna Noise
- Consider External Antennas
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortw...na/message/822

Grundig Satellit 800 "HUM" - Try an External Antenna
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortw...a/message/1380

On-the-Fence Antenna for the Grundig Satellit 800 M
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortw...na/message/797

Grundig Satellit 800-M ? Do I Need an External Antenna ?
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortw...na/message/508

Antenna Options for the Grundig Satellit 800 Millennium Radio
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortw...na/message/486

SWL Antenna with built-in AM/MW Attenuation
for the Grundig Satellit 800 M
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortw...na/message/920


CONSIDER BUILDING A "LOW NOISE" ANTENNA:
Try building an Improved SWL Random Wire Antenna that uses a
9:1 Matching Transformer (Balun / MLB) then you may not see
any real 'improvement' in your receive signal.

This is the so called "Low Noise" SWL Antenna.
Three "Must" Links to Read -wrt- Low Noise SWL Antenna
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortw...na/message/949
[ Please READ These Three Links ]
http://www.anarc.org/naswa/badx/ante...e_antenna.html
http://www.anarc.org/naswa/badx/ante..._longwire.html
http://www.anarc.org/naswa/badx/antennas/grounding.html
ABOUT THE "LOW NOISE" ANTENNA 'DESIGN CONCEPTS':
A Random Wire Antenna Element coupled via a 9:1 Matching
Transformer at the Near-End of the Antenna with a Ground
Rod and Coax Cable Feed-in-Line to the Receiver. This is
the basic SWL Antenna that uses the "Low Noise Antenna"
'design concepts' that were popularized by John Doty.

GROUNDING:
A "Ground" for your Antenna to 'reduced' AM/MW Interference
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortw...a/message/1173

Some 'steps-to-take' in RFI-EMF Noise Reduction:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortw...a/message/1137


OTHER - External Antenna Posting/Messages that may be of Interest:

The 'common sense' Answer concerning the SWL Antenna
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortw...a/message/1187

Answers to 4 Random Wire Questions: Ratio/Balun/Size&Shape/Tuner
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortw...a/message/1045

Balanced -or- Unbalanced ? Antennas, Feed-Lines, Matching Transformers . . .
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortw...na/message/997

Antenna & Ground Wires - What Gauge ?
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortw...na/message/991


iane ~ RHF
..
Some Say: On A Clear Day You Can See Forever.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortw...na/message/502
I BELIEVE: On A Clear Night...
You Can Hear Forever and Beyond - The Beyond !
..
..

I specified 1 inch without actually measuring. It turns out that smaller and
larger are available, not 1 inch. No matter though smaller is actually
better (theoretically, you'd never know the difference though).

"Mark S. Holden" wrote in message
...
http://www.kc7nod.20m.com/new_page_1.htm

I recently bought over 100 #43 ferrites that are a little smaller than the
one in the plans, but they work fine. If you need one, contact me direct -
I'll sell you one for a buck postpaid.

"Mark S. Holden" wrote in message
...
Michael Lawson wrote:

"Mark S. Holden" wrote in message
...
snippage

I wrote:

I went poking around the net for a while trying to
find out whether it's worth it or not, but I couldn't
find anything on the quality of the cable there. At
least any real data, that is.



Mark replied:

It's years since I bought RS cable, IIRC, the shielding
was loosely spiral wound instead of a full braid.


I dropped by and bought about 50 ft after taking a look;
it's a braid; not the tightest braid in the world, but it'll
do for the moment.


A fair number of people use RG-6 - it's 75 ohm impedance,
but the losses aren't likely to be meaningful. Home
improvement stores tend to sell quad shielded RG-6 at
a reasonable price.

The way I see it, noise is the limiting factor - so I'll gladly
trade a few db of signal strength for several db of noise
reduction.


Good point.

more snippage

I wind my own impedance matching transformers. It's easy. They
work well, and you don't need to twiddle knobs.

You need a few feet of magnet wire, and a #43 ferrite core.
Here's
a link to a site with directions:

http://www.kc7nod.20m.com/new_page_1.htm

I recently bought over 100 #43 ferrites that are a little smaller

than

the one in the plans, but they work fine. If you need one,
contact
me direct - I'll sell you one for a buck postpaid.


The 9:1 converter ought to work for 50 ohm cable too, with an
adjustment in number of loops, I'd imagine. Time to crack open
the books and reacquaint myself with inductance again.

Thanks for the offer; I ought to have a couple of 75-300
converters
around, so I'll see what I've got first.

--Mike L.


Good luck with it.

I bend the wire so it's next to itself for the first ten turns, so I
can
wind the primary and secondary at once.

I use a hot glue gun to tack the wire down to the ferrite when I
start
to wind the transformer, and as each winding ends. (3 drops total)

Until I installed my first one, I never would have believed how much
of
an improvement they make.

Okay, after a couple of days of scrounging around and a
trip or two to visit the Rat Shack (for wire and a smaller
project box), I've got mine up and running. Listening to
it this evening and comparing Radio Sweden from last
night to this night is actually very interesting. You can
actually hear a difference in the quality; less noise and
a degree or so of less fading. The signal strength doesn't
seem to have improved much, but the noise has definitely
dropped a bit.

Last night, I actually had to use the 4.0 kHz
filter to keep Radio Havana from swamping the signal
at times, but there's nary a problem tonight. Oh, I can
still hear a bit of Radio Havana in the background, but
the rejection is better this time around. Listening to
the Voice of Greece's broadcast to Europe earlier this
evening, I usually can't pick it up intelligibly at all, but
I was able to listen without much trouble tonight due
to the drop in the noise.

Methinks I'm going to do a bit more bandscanning tonight
to see what else I can pick up that I couldn't before...

Thanks for the help, guys, but now I've got that
damned tinkering bug again, and I'll probably be
putting it to use converting the high pass SW filter
that I homebrewed years ago to something I can
use these days (like putting a switch inline with it
so I can bypass it as needed).

--Mike L.