I have a random wire antenna, which is a is a clothes line about 25
feet off the ground and about 45 feet long. This arrives at the deck
on my third floor flat, where I have a balun. I run the antenna to
the balun and a ground line from the balun to a copper rod in the
ground, and a coax feed line from the balun to the receiver.

This seems to work quite well as my signal strength improves somewhat,
but more importantly, my noise level drops dramatically when compared
to the whip on my small receiver.

I am confused about the "best" ground method. Should I place the
balun near the ground rod and run the coax feed line up into my flat?
Will this improve anything or, is the set up I have fine?

Gary Weber

You're fine. You actually have an inverted L dipole. Should work
pretty well being relatively high off the ground. I'd disconnect when
not using for static/lightning safety.

On 3 Dec 2004 10:33:33 -0800, (Gary Weber)
wrote:

I have a random wire antenna, which is a is a clothes line about 25
feet off the ground and about 45 feet long. This arrives at the deck
on my third floor flat, where I have a balun. I run the antenna to
the balun and a ground line from the balun to a copper rod in the
ground, and a coax feed line from the balun to the receiver.

This seems to work quite well as my signal strength improves somewhat,
but more importantly, my noise level drops dramatically when compared
to the whip on my small receiver.

I am confused about the "best" ground method. Should I place the
balun near the ground rod and run the coax feed line up into my flat?
Will this improve anything or, is the set up I have fine?

Gary Weber

Gary Weber wrote:

I have a random wire antenna, which is a is a clothes line about 25
feet off the ground and about 45 feet long. This arrives at the deck
on my third floor flat, where I have a balun. I run the antenna to
the balun and a ground line from the balun to a copper rod in the
ground, and a coax feed line from the balun to the receiver.

This seems to work quite well as my signal strength improves somewhat,
but more importantly, my noise level drops dramatically when compared
to the whip on my small receiver.

I am confused about the "best" ground method. Should I place the
balun near the ground rod and run the coax feed line up into my flat?
Will this improve anything or, is the set up I have fine?

Gary Weber

You could improve the RF ground to the balun by making the ground wire
much shorter. Run a single wire from the near end of the antenna down to
the ground where the balun would be located. The balun would be grounded
with a short wire to a near by ground rod. Then run the coax feed line
from the balun to the house.


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Gary Weber schrieb:

I have a random wire antenna, which is a is a clothes line about 25
feet off the ground and about 45 feet long. This arrives at the deck
on my third floor flat, where I have a balun. I run the antenna to
the balun and a ground line from the balun to a copper rod in the
ground, and a coax feed line from the balun to the receiver.

This seems to work quite well as my signal strength improves somewhat,
but more importantly, my noise level drops dramatically when compared
to the whip on my small receiver.

Do not ground the single wires feeding the BalUn.


I am confused about the "best" ground method. Should I place the
balun near the ground rod and run the coax feed line up into my flat?
Will this improve anything or, is the set up I have fine?

Do only ground the shielding (on the coax-connector) running to the
BalUn from your RX.

In article ,
(Gary Weber) wrote:

I have a random wire antenna, which is a is a clothes line about 25
feet off the ground and about 45 feet long. This arrives at the deck
on my third floor flat, where I have a balun. I run the antenna to
the balun and a ground line from the balun to a copper rod in the
ground, and a coax feed line from the balun to the receiver.

This seems to work quite well as my signal strength improves somewhat,
but more importantly, my noise level drops dramatically when compared
to the whip on my small receiver.

I am confused about the "best" ground method. Should I place the
balun near the ground rod and run the coax feed line up into my flat?
Will this improve anything or, is the set up I have fine?

From your description of the situation your antenna is in you have an
approximately 25 foot wire to the ground rod. The 25 foot wire will act
as a counter poise against the 45 foot long horizontal wire depending on
how the BALUN is connected.

I would experiment with connecting and disconnecting the ground rod
connection at different frequencies to see which works better. If an
overall improvement is seen with the ground rod connected then you might
want to try making that path to the ground rod lower impedance by using
wide copper foil. This probably not worth the trouble though.

If your ground conductivity is poor then you might want to connect an
additional ground wire from the ground rod 45 foot long under your 45
foot long horizontal element.

If you do any of this let us know how things turn out.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California

= = = (Gary Weber) wrote in message
= = = . com...

I have a random wire antenna, which is a is a clothes line about 25
feet off the ground and about 45 feet long. This arrives at the deck
on my third floor flat, where I have a balun. I run the antenna to
the balun and a ground line from the balun to a copper rod in the
ground, and a coax feed line from the balun to the receiver.

This seems to work quite well as my signal strength improves somewhat,
but more importantly, my noise level drops dramatically when compared
to the whip on my small receiver.

I am confused about the "best" ground method. Should I place the
balun near the ground rod and run the coax feed line up into my flat?
Will this improve anything or, is the set up I have fine?

Gary Weber

GW,

So you have a Horizontal {Flat} Random Wire Antenna with a
Balun and long Vertical Ground Wire run. Which is a 'basic'
"Low Noise SWL Antenna" using the 'design concepts' that were
popularized by John Doty.

READ - Three "Must" Links to Read -wrt- Low Noise SWL Antenna
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortw...na/message/949

So - You have strong "S9" Signal Levels and Low Noise:
Then I would say - This Antenna Is Working A-OK For You ! )
[ Hey - If It Ain't Broken Don't Try Fixing It ! ]

Having say (written) the above. "IF" you have 3'-5' or more 'space'
between where the Ground Wire runs up to your Balun along the side
of the building/deck. You may wish to modify the the Current layout
of the Horizontal {Flat} Random Wire Antenna to an Inverted "L" Antenna.

1. Move (Relocate) the Balun to the Ground Rod and mount the Balun
on or within inches of the Ground Rod.

2. Replace (Extend) the Coax Cable so that it runs from your
Radio/Receivers to the location of the Ground Rod and Balun.

3. Replace (Extend) the Wire Antenna Element from the Horizontal
End Point down to the location of the Ground Rod and Balun.

4. Connect the Ground Wire, Coax Cable and Antenna Wire Element
to the Balun.

5. Run/Route a 'separate' Heavy Ground Wire from the Ground Rod
to the Radio/Receivers.

READ - "Low Noise Shortwave Listener (SWL) Antenna
for most Radio/Receivers" [NO Antenna Tuner Required]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortw...a/message/1525
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortw...a/message/1024

Enjoy Listening to your Radio/Receivers with your Antenna.


iane ~ RHF
..
All are WELCOME at the Shortwave Listener (SWL) "Antenna Ashram"
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortw...na/message/502
Some Say: On A Clear Day You Can See Forever.
I BELIEVE: On A Clear Night . . .
You Can Hear Forever and Beyond, The BEYOND !
[ With the a SWL Antenna of your own making. ]
..
..