Radial wire antennas - by Peter Chambers
 

Cuhulin wrote:

KVOO,Tulsa is 419 miles (674 KM,364 Nautical Miles,I looked it up at
indo.com,Find Distance) Northwest of where I live and I love Western
Ranch Music.I can't pick up KVOO (kvoo.com) from where I live on my
radio's.My yard area measures about 170 feet West to East and about 60
feet North to South.If I lay an antenna like that on my yard,would that
let me pick up KVOO,Tulsa,Oklahoma real good on my radio's? Will that
help/improve Shortwave listening too? I would probally need to bury the
wire in my yard about two or three inches so that when I mow my yard in
the Summertime,my lawnmower wouldn't be snagging on the wire.(one day
when I was driving that old reject Clark forklift at Tan Son
Nhut,sombody had left a whole roll of flat steel banding wire laying
partway in the road.It was just wayyyyy too tempting,,,,, I just had! to
get the right rear wheel of that forklift snagged on that roll of
banding wire! Accidently on purpose,of course :{)
cuhulin


Well, there is a type of antenna configuration designed to be lain on
the ground or even buried a couple of inches. It is made from coax, and
is called a "snake" antenna (recipies are on the web in various places).
Don't know how you'd do it - or if you could - with plain steel wire.

But more to the point, as best as I can tell, KVOO is an FM station - I
don't see any AM listing for it. The rough figure for maximum reach of
reception of an FM station is about 100 miles, as FM is line-of-sight
transmission. DXers make FM catches exceeding that, of course, but that
would be a rarity. 420 miles? I doubt it's possible.

The "snake" antenna configuration would likely improve your reception,
though, of a lot of things. What kind of antenna config are you using
currently?

Tony

I didn't realize KVOO had switched to FM,I know KVOO used to be on AM
because I could pick it up on my radio's that have AM band at night time
but it would fade in and out.A little over five years ago I bought one
of those CCrane radios that Art Bell and George Noory tout so much.I
thought it would be much better for picking up KVOO is the only reason I
bought that CCrane radio (are y'all listening,Art Bell and George
Noory?) but that over priced,over rated plastic piece of crap CCrane
radio didn't show me s..t! so I packed it up an sent it back to CCrane
company.Then I bought one of those Sangean ATS whatever it is highest
priced (I hate to say this,portable) portable shortwave radios from
CCrane,I sent that radio back to CCrane company too.Only the antennas
that were installed at the factory's are in my old beat up radio's.I
suppose I could tune into KVOO with my computer though.There is a good
Country Music radio station www.us963.com and a Bluegrass radio
station and an oldies station and a lot more AM and FM radio stations
here in Jackson but they hardly ever play any Western Ranch music.I like
Polka Music too,but around here,it just doesn't exist on radio stations.
cuhulin