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Radio Question
Over the weekend, I stumbled into a Panasonic RF-4800 general
communications receiver. It looks like it just came out of the box. Mint+. I have some issues that perhaps some of you can help with. I spend most of the week working out of an RV in an RV park. The park rules are such that they really frown on antennas other than TV. So it leaves out a long wire antenna. My TV antenna (no cable in the park) is about 12' to the yagi. So I have a mounting height issue..the Slinky trick is out. Anyone got a good suggestion for a low profile receiving antenna that will cover broadcast to 31 mhz? Vertically polarized, or horizontally..horizontal would be best. The RV has a surface aprox 7' wide by 20' long. loop antennas are out. No way to turn it from inside and are a bit high profile. Second big question. The only place to put this receiver is within 3 feet of my computer. So Im getting freaking huge birdies all over the spectrum with the puter/monitor turned on. The receiver has a 50ohm Pl259 coax connector, as well as a binding post for a long wire. Plus a binding post for AM broadcast and a third for FM broadcast. The RV itself is a damned good Faraday cage. Aluminum siding, aluminum window frames and screen. Even the local stations fade to zip when the door is closed. I have to leave the cell phone near a window to work. So the antenna has to be external. Shrug. Anyone got any suggestions? Ive got a chunk of wire tossed over the roof at the moment, but tis not particularly effective. Gunner Rule #35 "That which does not kill you, has made a huge tactical error" |
You could get a couple of pipe flanges and mount one inside on the
ceiling and the other one on the roof and rig/make a handle thingy to turn a loop antenna in any direction you want to turn it.Some of that caulking/putty stuff would keep it water proof. cuhulin |
Dear Gunner,
It's expensive, it's a "loop," but it might be just what you're looking for! Check out the AOR WL500 Window Loop Antenna. http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/sw_ant/0238.html I own one. I use it with my Grundig Satellit 800. It's relatively non-directional above 6 MHz. I like it very much. I believe AES and Grove also sell this antenna. Hope that's at least of some interest to you. Best, Joe |
On 5 Apr 2005 11:28:55 -0700, "Joe Analssandrini"
wrote: Dear Gunner, It's expensive, it's a "loop," but it might be just what you're looking for! Check out the AOR WL500 Window Loop Antenna. http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/sw_ant/0238.html I own one. I use it with my Grundig Satellit 800. It's relatively non-directional above 6 MHz. I like it very much. I believe AES and Grove also sell this antenna. Hope that's at least of some interest to you. Best, Joe Many thanks Joe, looks very interesting Gunner Rule #35 "That which does not kill you, has made a huge tactical error" |
Gunner wrote: Over the weekend, I stumbled into a Panasonic RF-4800 general communications receiver. It looks like it just came out of the box. Mint+. I have some issues that perhaps some of you can help with. I spend most of the week working out of an RV in an RV park. The park rules are such that they really frown on antennas other than TV. So it leaves out a long wire antenna. My TV antenna (no cable in the park) is about 12' to the yagi. So I have a mounting height issue..the Slinky trick is out. Anyone got a good suggestion for a low profile receiving antenna that will cover broadcast to 31 mhz? Vertically polarized, or horizontally..horizontal would be best. The RV has a surface aprox 7' wide by 20' long. ................................................. .............................. I used a Winnebago for a few summers and found that a CB whip (96") worked fairly well. RV people are quite used to CB antennas and accept them as part of the game. You can get mounting clamps from truck stops and perhaps Radio Shack, and you will need to run RG58U through a hole somewhere and get the right antenna connector for the Panasonic. Don't forget to take down the whip when you move the rig. Also, I found that a wire run across the windshield and held in place by tape worked fairly well but was hopeless when moving due to static and engine noise. I used to connect it to the whip....73... |
What is it that makes those antennas so expensive?
cuhulin |
On Tue, 05 Apr 2005 10:53:17 GMT, Gunner
wrote: Over the weekend, I stumbled into a Panasonic RF-4800 general communications receiver. It looks like it just came out of the box. Mint+. I have some issues that perhaps some of you can help with. I spend most of the week working out of an RV in an RV park. The park rules are such that they really frown on antennas other than TV. So it leaves out a long wire antenna. My TV antenna (no cable in the park) is about 12' to the yagi. So I have a mounting height issue..the Slinky trick is out. Anyone got a good suggestion for a low profile receiving antenna that will cover broadcast to 31 mhz? Vertically polarized, or horizontally..horizontal would be best. The RV has a surface aprox 7' wide by 20' long. loop antennas are out. No way to turn it from inside and are a bit high profile. Second big question. The only place to put this receiver is within 3 feet of my computer. So Im getting freaking huge birdies all over the spectrum with the puter/monitor turned on. The receiver has a 50ohm Pl259 coax connector, as well as a binding post for a long wire. Plus a binding post for AM broadcast and a third for FM broadcast. The RV itself is a damned good Faraday cage. Aluminum siding, aluminum window frames and screen. Even the local stations fade to zip when the door is closed. I have to leave the cell phone near a window to work. So the antenna has to be external. Shrug. Anyone got any suggestions? Ive got a chunk of wire tossed over the roof at the moment, but tis not particularly effective. Gunner Rule #35 "That which does not kill you, has made a huge tactical error" Gunner, Perhaps your TV antenna mast needs to have guy-wires just in case of wind ;) You may wish to make those guy-wires from one continuous length of wire that is, in actuality, your random wire antena. Discreetly feed the starting point with coax and bring it into the RV. I'm not really sure how well this would work for you but it shouldn't cost too much in money or time to give it a try. Howard |
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Bart Bailey wrote:
Yes, it improves reception, ...of noise from both inside and outside the shack. g Whoops - I forgot the original post mention the noise problem. It worked for me because it was a quiet, rural location - no line noise, etc. BTW, I've had good luck with the MFJ 784B DSP filter when I do have noise - someone mentioned the Timewave AN-4 (?) - it's more expensive but if it takes the manual intervention out of the process, I'd recommend going that way. |
Bart Bailey wrote: In posted on Wed, 06 Apr 2005 17:50:58 GMT, Bart Bailey wrote: Begin I was the one who suggested Mark take a look at the ANC-4 to evaluate if he thought the somewhat pricey cost might be justified, and based on reports from acquaintances in the local radio community I have already ordered one for myself, and will report on its effectiveness after it arrives next monday. OK It's Monday, UPS came on time, and the ANC-4 is a real blessing. Ideal circumstances for an evaluation this afternoon because it just so happened that ten meters was wide open today and SDG&E was also in true form with all the hash they could dish out. At first I thought the thing wasn't going to be of any service as there wasn't any noticeable reduction in the high noise level, but since it (my noise) was from outside and above the antenna rather than from within the shack, I had to use an external sense antenna. When using an additional roof antenna for reference, the ANC-4 was able to reduce the noise to a baseline hiss yet all stations came in unaffected. I heard stuff I only occasionally hear during brief periods of quiet, but was able to maintain that s/n throughout the afternoon. The unit is well constructed, heavy case, a bit smaller than I expected, fits easily on top of the rig, and is all in all a worthwhile addition to anyone plagued by a noisy (QRN) environment. If you have a problem with outside electrical noise then call the provider. In realistic terms they only have a brief period to respond to your complaint. I had a persistent problem here recently (last fall) and though it took a bit of time to resolve, the local power provider spent over $5000 to bring in an outside contractor (from Maryland) to not only resolve the problem, but to train the local folks to be able to resolve the problems themselves. (Interestingly enough, I had traced the problem to within 3 poles, but they wouldn't listen to me. I did get a highly apologetic letter later on though!) If you can't get any relief, and you believe that the problem is indeed caused by power line problems, then get in touch with the FCC. Don't take no for an answer! dxAce Michigan USA http://www.iserv.net/~n8kdv/dxpage.htm |
Bart Bailey wrote:
The unit is well constructed, heavy case, a bit smaller than I expected, fits easily on top of the rig, and is all in all a worthwhile addition to anyone plagued by a noisy (QRN) environment. -- Bart Excellent, Bart! I use the MFJ 784B DSP filter, but would much rather have the anc4 if I was in a high-noise location. I used to look at it in the AES catalog and wonder if it really was as good as everyone said. Sounds like it is. |
Bart Bailey wrote:
In posted on Mon, 11 Apr 2005 21:08:26 -0400, dxAce wrote: Begin If you can't get any relief, and you believe that the problem is indeed caused by power line problems, then get in touch with the FCC. I had to do that once with cox communications, when the rude cable guy was complaining I was getting into their system. I told the FCC field engineer about the RF leakage from their "closed" system and a few days later they had three of their pole monkeys out reworking all the distribution boxes in my neighborhood. Cable TV uses frequencies that fall in the commercial aviation band and is therefore only allowed a minimum of leakage. I had tried to tell the original cable guy that there was a major leakage issue, but he insisted it was the fault of my equipment. Turned out that someone in an apartment across the way had spliced into his cable with zip cord to share football games with his neighbors and in effect created an antenna out of the cable. -- Bart This is why United Video Cablevision installed "Sniffer" receivers in their service trucks back in the early '80s. A separate modulator was fed into the system a little above the highest TV channel that had an irritating modulation so there was no mistaking it You could spot a leak driving down the road, then look for the problem with a small handheld receiver with its signal strength meter. -- Former professional electron wrangler. Michael A. Terrell Central Florida |
Bart Bailey wrote:
In posted on Tue, 12 Apr 2005 16:33:48 GMT, Bart Bailey wrote: Begin MFJ also make a phase inversion canceler too (MFJ-1035) That would be the MFJ-1025 -- Bart Thanks. Have a friend who's into SWL, and I think he'd be interested in this. |
You could probably rig up something similar with a Wellbrook ALA 100
and your own wire. No tuning required. |
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