Space is something I don't have, unfortunately. I have a 900 square foot
house, and a small yard. It's all mine, but it's pretty small. (No doubt I
can still arrange some kind of dipole.) GROUNDING is something I've been
lax with, and will be more dilligent with this time 'round. My shortwave
antennas have typically been speaker wire that gets thumb tacked around the
corners of the house, or along the edge of the house outside. A good ground
will probably improve my reception appreciably, but Mrs. Won't like me
having my radio in the living room all the time, and I'll have to go
upstairs once in awhile to listen.

As for the E1, I hadn't even planned on buying it this year. $500.00 for a
tiny radio that does what the 909 does, but has XM isn't my idea of a good
investment, but I *DO* like the panel a lot.

I saw a nice little portable shortwave receiver that seemed to have
"features" I found very good. I believe it was called a Degen 1103? (or
1130? GOsh, I can't remember now) but I liked seeing the panel lit up, as
well as the buttons. They can be bought comparatively cheap as well, but...
I'm going to enjoy playing with my Grundig for quite a long time, and I'll
know when it's time to get something new. It's good to know that the same
old antenna plans are always a good way to go. I WAS thinking mainly of
some sort of erectable pole or stationary single antenna. (Something for
the 80MPH severe thunderstorms to knock out.)

I think what I will do is just run a wire along the perimeter of my house
outside, hook it up to a 3-4 foot ground (the ground never gets dry here in
Indianapolis... NEVER EVER) and run a little bit of wire through the winder
where I'll hook it up with alligator clips to the whip.

(Lemme guess. THAT'S a bad plan...) someone's gonna tell me that, and
I'll feel like a flaming arse...

73, ww6djm

Daniel


wrote in message
oups.com...

Daniel J. Morlan wrote:
I enjoy shortwave very much when I have the time, and living in
Indianapolis
now, I can receive a LOT more stations on just the whip antenna of my

BayGen. I sold my Sangean ATS-909 and a few other radios that I
didn't use
so much so that I could buy the Satellit 800. I will miss the
compact
nature of the 909, but I'm bound to buy the Eton E1 when it comes out
to
fulfill THOSE wants, but I eventually want to get to some "serious
DX'ing".


Dan

Where the near future is concerned, I hope you enjoy the Satellit 800.
Where the more distant future is concerned, if you really want to do
some "serious DXing", then I encourage you to consider something other
than the E1. In particular, you need to consider a tabletop receiver,
as the performance of the E1 is unlikely to be significantly better
than that of the Satellit 800.

I'm *assuming* that your primary interest is broadcast listening and
broadcast DXing. In that case, if you can afford it, spring for a new
AOR 7030+.

If you can't afford anything in the price range of a new 7030+, but
have an aversion to buying used equipment, then consider the Palstar
R30C or R30CC. It's very small and doesn't have a lot of bells and
whistles, but it's a significant step up from the Satellit 800.

If you don't mind buying used equipment, then you have many more
options. I suggest you consider a used Drake R8, R8A or R8B. One of
these would be a good choice if you have a secondary interest in
utilities, CW, and so on.

On the other hand, if the Eton "spin machine" really has its hooks in
you and you're determined to buy an E1, at least wait a few years until
they have the bugs ironed out of it. You shouldn't spend $500 of your
hard-earned money so that you can be one of the E1's beta testers.

As for an antenna for use with the S800, I suggest that you buy a
length of coax, an I.C.E. model 180 beverage/longwire matching
transfomer, a ground rod, and enough copper wire so that you can not
only erect a sizeable antenna but experiment with a number of different
antenna designs to see what works best in your circumstances. This will
be great fun, and it will give you more than enough antenna for the
800, which will begin to overload anyway if the antenna gets too large
(I found this out myself, the hard way). My guess is you'll get
excellent results with a random wire antenna, but half the fun is
experimenting.

Later, when you have a 7030+, a Drake or whatever you end up with, you
can consider building a much larger antenna. At this point it might
also make sense to consider something like a Wellbrook loop, especially
if (1) you don't mind spending a few hundred bucks on an antenna and
(2) you don't have the space in which to erect a large wire antenna.

Whatever you decide to do, I hope it works out well for you. Keep us
posted!

Steve