Joe Analssandrini wrote:

Hello Laura,

The idea of walking around your area (and the roof) with your radio in
hand to see if interference is greater or lesser at various locations
is sound.

It's a very good idea. You can save yourself a lot of hassle by
'snooping' the area first before erecting an antenna. It's one of the
best ways to find radio interference.

LF,
..
An "On-the-Roof" Shortwave Antenna may be a good idea;
and an "In-the-Attic" Shortwave Antenna can also work well.
..
But when you have RFI / EMF Man Made Noise Problems
usually one sure way of reducing them is to use a Loop
Antenna to Null-Out the Noise Source or Peak the Signal
of the Radio Station you want to listen to.
..
An In-Door Loop Antenna is about as easy to build and
takes about the same amount of time money and effort
as an Out-Side {External} Shortwave Antenna.
..
READ - Four 'different' "In-Door" Loop Antennas Ideas
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortw...a/message/1933
..
Specifically take-a-look-at the : In-Door "On-the-Wall"
Loop Antenna for 'portable' AM/FM Shortwave Radios that
use a 1/8" (3.5mm) Jack for the External Antenna like your
Roberts R861 Radio.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortw...a/message/1845
..
This Antenna can be Mounted with Two Cup-Hooks
and a 8oz Fish Weight to position the Bottom-Center.
..
Try it on one wall and then the adjacent side wall (90*)
..
iane ~ RHF
..
All are WELCOME and "Invited to Join" the
Shortwave Listener (SWL) Antenna eGroup on YAHOO !
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortwave-SWL-Antenna/
..
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 !
With a Shortwave Listener SWL Antenna of your own making.
"If You Build It {SWL Antenna} You Will Hear Them !"

Hiya,

Thanx everyone for your advice. We got up on the roof finally
today and so now I know what we are dealing with. A friend
gave me some 15 metres of 75 ohm coax cable which I'm going
to use for the lead in and I have a good 5 metres or more of
bellwire I found hanging around which I'm going to connect to
it and use as the aerial. It is standard bellwire so it has
two wires and I'm thinking to join them together (that won't
cause any problems?) anyway rather than laying it on the ground
I think I'm going to tie the wire around a chimney stack at one
end and around a satellite dish mount at the other so it will be
off the ground and sloping (about 1/2 metre at one end and 1.5 at
the other). I've heard a lot about using some sort of pulley system
here and not just using the wire direct at each end but I don't
really know how I can make that easily. I do have some string
could I just use that at each end or does it have to be more
elaborate? Anyway we are probably going up to the roof a few times
now, I am also trying to sort out the satellite dish at the same
time. I had a great time the other evening listening to local radio
hams having a bit of a shin-dig on the 80metre band - I think I am
definently going to get a book about aerials, how they work and
how to make them etc it's obviously very very important. Well, so,
once again thanx for all your help, gradually I'm learning much
more about this fascinating subject. Sorry not to post sooner but
I haven't been on-line for a while and my keyboard went so the computer
has been out of action and of course I have been spending an interminable
amount of time messing around with things and reading etc, thanx Joe
particularly for a very informative post, your idea about moving around
and detecting and identifying electrical noise was most enlightening;
it's ironic that I'm working on setting up a satellite dish too and
the satellite box was emitting a huge amount of electrical interference!
Anyway hopefully next time I post I will have news of a much improved
signal (sometimes I scan from 4000 to 8000 and get 3 stations but at night
it is burgeoning with stations) and even have attainned one of the main
objects which is to receive Voice of Korea,.. seeya

bestwishesfrom
laura




On 27 Jan 2005 16:16:59 -0800, "RHF" wrote:

LF,
.
An "On-the-Roof" Shortwave Antenna may be a good idea;
and an "In-the-Attic" Shortwave Antenna can also work well.
.
But when you have RFI / EMF Man Made Noise Problems
usually one sure way of reducing them is to use a Loop
Antenna to Null-Out the Noise Source or Peak the Signal
of the Radio Station you want to listen to.
.
An In-Door Loop Antenna is about as easy to build and
takes about the same amount of time money and effort
as an Out-Side {External} Shortwave Antenna.
.
READ - Four 'different' "In-Door" Loop Antennas Ideas
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortw...a/message/1933
.
Specifically take-a-look-at the : In-Door "On-the-Wall"
Loop Antenna for 'portable' AM/FM Shortwave Radios that
use a 1/8" (3.5mm) Jack for the External Antenna like your
Roberts R861 Radio.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortw...a/message/1845
.
This Antenna can be Mounted with Two Cup-Hooks
and a 8oz Fish Weight to position the Bottom-Center.
.
Try it on one wall and then the adjacent side wall (90*)
.
iane ~ RHF
.
All are WELCOME and "Invited to Join" the
Shortwave Listener (SWL) Antenna eGroup on YAHOO !
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortwave-SWL-Antenna/
.
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 !
With a Shortwave Listener SWL Antenna of your own making.
"If You Build It {SWL Antenna} You Will Hear Them !"
.
.


--
echo |sed 's/\(.\)\(.\)/\2\1/g'

laura fairhead wrote:
Hiya,

Thanx everyone for your advice. We got up on the roof finally
today and so now I know what we are dealing with. A friend
gave me some 15 metres of 75 ohm coax cable which I'm going
to use for the lead in and I have a good 5 metres or more of
bellwire I found hanging around which I'm going to connect to
it and use as the aerial. It is standard bellwire so it has
two wires and I'm thinking to join them together (that won't
cause any problems?) anyway rather than laying it on the ground
I think I'm going to tie the wire around a chimney stack at one
end and around a satellite dish mount at the other so it will be
off the ground and sloping (about 1/2 metre at one end and 1.5 at
the other). I've heard a lot about using some sort of pulley system
here and not just using the wire direct at each end but I don't
really know how I can make that easily. I do have some string
could I just use that at each end or does it have to be more
elaborate? Anyway we are probably going up to the roof a few times
now, I am also trying to sort out the satellite dish at the same
time. I had a great time the other evening listening to local radio
hams having a bit of a shin-dig on the 80metre band - I think I am
definently going to get a book about aerials, how they work and
how to make them etc it's obviously very very important. Well, so,
once again thanx for all your help, gradually I'm learning much
more about this fascinating subject. Sorry not to post sooner but
I haven't been on-line for a while and my keyboard went so the
computer
has been out of action and of course I have been spending an
interminable
amount of time messing around with things and reading etc, thanx Joe
particularly for a very informative post, your idea about moving
around
and detecting and identifying electrical noise was most enlightening;
it's ironic that I'm working on setting up a satellite dish too and
the satellite box was emitting a huge amount of electrical
interference!
Anyway hopefully next time I post I will have news of a much improved
signal (sometimes I scan from 4000 to 8000 and get 3 stations but at
night
it is burgeoning with stations) and even have attainned one of the
main
objects which is to receive Voice of Korea,.. seeya

bestwishesfrom
laura




On 27 Jan 2005 16:16:59 -0800, "RHF"
wrote:

LF,
.
An "On-the-Roof" Shortwave Antenna may be a good idea;
and an "In-the-Attic" Shortwave Antenna can also work well.
.
But when you have RFI / EMF Man Made Noise Problems
usually one sure way of reducing them is to use a Loop
Antenna to Null-Out the Noise Source or Peak the Signal
of the Radio Station you want to listen to.
.
An In-Door Loop Antenna is about as easy to build and
takes about the same amount of time money and effort
as an Out-Side {External} Shortwave Antenna.
.
READ - Four 'different' "In-Door" Loop Antennas Ideas
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortw...a/message/1933
.
Specifically take-a-look-at the : In-Door "On-the-Wall"
Loop Antenna for 'portable' AM/FM Shortwave Radios that
use a 1/8" (3.5mm) Jack for the External Antenna like your
Roberts R861 Radio.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortw...a/message/1845
.
This Antenna can be Mounted with Two Cup-Hooks
and a 8oz Fish Weight to position the Bottom-Center.
.
Try it on one wall and then the adjacent side wall (90*)
.
iane ~ RHF
.
All are WELCOME and "Invited to Join" the
Shortwave Listener (SWL) Antenna eGroup on YAHOO !
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortwave-SWL-Antenna/
.
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 !
With a Shortwave Listener SWL Antenna of your own making.
"If You Build It {SWL Antenna} You Will Hear Them !"
.
.


--
echo |sed 's/\(.\)\(.\)/\2\1/g'

You really want to use either string, or someother insulator to tie
the antenna wire to each support.
Using two conductor wire, with bith wires connected in common will not
hurt anything.
If you can seprate the paired wires into and have 10M of wire instead
of 5, the reuslts will be much better. As a general rule, the longer
the wire, the better the reception. Most of us don't have enough space
to worry about going too long.
Terry