On Sun, 05 Mar 2006 13:25:52 GMT, "Rikk"
wrote:

Hi
I am wondering if I have my longwire set correctly, maybe you could advise
please.
At the moment I have a sloping long-wire of about 50 foot, going from the
top of a mast on my house about 35 foot tall to the top of a washing line
post about 12 foot tall. I have connected the lonwire to my radio by means
of CB-coax, what I have done is to attach the centre core of the coax to the
longwire and I have cut the outer sheath on the coax near to the ground and
connected an earhtwire that is soldered to a cold water main supply pipe as
an earth.
Only the centre wire on the coax is connected to the actual longwire.

Is there a way I could do better.

I am thinking about getting an active antenna, the Sony AN-1

Would this work better for me or is there a better alternative available.
I am running an Icom R72
thanks
Rikk


If you don't have too much man-made noise inside your house, you might
consider bringing the random wire all the way to the 500-ohm terminal
on the back of your receiver, and run your ground wire from the
terminal next to it to your cold water pipe. This gets rid of the
mismatch between your high impedance antenna and low impedance coax,
and you don't need the balun at all, which is fine, because the balun
only provides an approximate impedance transformation.

Another alternative would be to bring the long wire into your house,
and attach it to an inexpensive random wire antenna tuner, such as an
MFJ 16010, about $49 US. Then run a short length of coax from the
tuner to your radio's 50-ohm input. As you go to each new frequency,
peak the knobs for maximum signal strength.

Yet another alternative, keep your current antenna; add the balun to
it or whatever. But put up a 2nd antenna, perhaps aimed in a different
direction, and run it to your high impedance terminal. Switch between
the two antennas for best reception on a given signal. You could do
some interesting A-B comparisons on antennas.

Bob
k5qwg

BM [K5QWG] - Those were Three Good Antenna Suggestions.

IF - The Low-Z (50 Ohm) SO-239 Connector on the Receiver is being
used for some sort of LongWire {Random Wire} Antenna that is using
a Matching Transformer and a Coax Cable Feed-in-Line.

NOTE - My Favorite is the Inverted "L" Antenna with with the
Vertical-Up-Leg at the Far-End and a Remotely Located
Ground Rod at base of the Far-End of the Antenna; also
using a Matching Transformer (UnUn) between the Wire
Antenna Element and the Coax Cable Feed-in-Line and
having the Coax Cable run directly under the Horizontal
Arm of the Antenna.

READ - ABOUT - The "Low Noise" Antenna design concepts
that were popularized by John Doty :
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.r...86383afa7727a9

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.r...38b087b5e89fee

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortw...a/message/5178
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.r...463ad863e5b075

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.r...4620d18b66eeba

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.r...3fe02cad4e5650

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.r...d35eeaa8425c14
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.r...7711375bb4d0bb



THEN CONSIDER A SECOND SHORTWAVE ANTENNA
- - - THINK WINDOM ANTENNA ! ! !
As you observe the High-Z Terminals (500 Ohm) are not being used.
So the High-Z Terminals (500 Ohm) are available to connect a
Second (2nd) "Alternate" {Back-Up} Antenna to the Receiver.

QUESTION : What Will . . .
My Second Shortwave Listener (SWL) Antenna Be ?
{Making Use of the High-Z (500 Ohm) Terminals}
! Think Windom Antenna with 300 Ohm Feed-in-Line !

My Choice for this Second "Alternate" {Back-Up} Antenna
is a Windom Antenna using 300 Ohm TV type Twin Lead
as the Feed-in-Line and simple 20 AWG Hook-Up Wire
as the Wire Antenna Elements.

The Two 'un-equal' Horizontal-Arms of the Windom Antenna
can be Cut for your Target Shortwave Bands or simply
Cut-to-Fit the Available Space allowed by your Lot (Land).

TIP - The Off-Center {Center} Connector for your Windom
* Ten-Tec 3003 Acro-Bat (Dipole Antenna Hanger)
http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/antsup/3720.html

Windom Antenna = Available Space Tip-to-Tip (T2T) Length
* Short Horizontal-Arm 33% ~ 38% of T2T Length
* Long Horizontal-Arm 62% ~ 67% of T2T Length
* How High ? Rigged the Windom at 25% of T2T Length

Windom Antenna = Cut-to-Shortwave-Band

Large Size - Windom Antenna {~ 100 Feet}
Cut for : 60 Meters = 75 Meters + 49 Meters
T2T = 97.7 Ft = 59.2 Ft + 38.5 Ft and Rigged at 24.5 Ft High

Medium Size - Windom Antenna {~ 65 Feet}
Cut for : 41 Meters = 49 Meters + 31 Meters
T2T = 63.0 Ft = 38.5 Ft + 24.5 and Rigged at 17.1 Ft High

Small Size - Windom Antenna {~ 50 Feet}
Cut for : 31 Meters = 41 Meters + 25 Meters
T2T = 51.5 Ft = 31.8 Ft + 19.7 Ft and Rigged at 15.1 Ft High

Mini Size - Windom Antenna {~ 40 Feet}
Cut for : 25 Meters = 31 Meters + 19 Meters
T2T = 39.6 Ft = 24.5 Ft + 15.1 Ft and Rigged at 10.8 Ft High

RIGGING - Ideally the 300 Ohm Twin Lead Vertical-Up-Leg
of the Windom Antenna should run Straight-Up (Vertically)
from the Ground to the Off-Center Mounting Point of the
Antenna and the Rule-of-Thumb for this simple type of
Windom Antenna is to have the Antenna's Horizontal Arms
Rigged [Flat] at about 25% of the Tip-to-Tip (T2T) Length
of the Antenna. Note - The remainder of the Twin Lead
Feed-in-Line can run along the Ground and then to the
Receiver.

READ - Windom -vice- Dipole which is the better SWL Antenna ? ? ?
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.r...c69758fb501718

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SWL-AM...nna/message/80
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortw...a/message/1677
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortw...a/message/1596
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortw...a/message/1582

READ - History of the Windom Antenna from the Scottish Ham Portal
http://www.scotham.net
.
.
hope this helps - iane ~ RHF
.
Tous Sont Bienvenus ! - - - Groupe par Radio
d'auditeur d'onde courte pour des Antennes de SWL
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortwave-SWL-Antenna/
.
Alle Sind Willkommen ! - - - Shortwave Radiozuhörer
Gruppe für SWL Antennen
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortwave-SWL-Antenna/
.
Tutti Sono Benvenuti ! - - - Gruppo Radiofonico
dell'ascoltatore di onda corta per le Antenne di SWL
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortwave-SWL-Antenna/
.
Todos São Bem-vindos ! - - - Grupo de Rádio
do ouvinte do Shortwave para Antenas de SWL
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortwave-SWL-Antenna/
.
Ð’Ñ�е Ð*адушны ! - - - Группа оператора
на приеме коротковолнового диапазона
Radio дл� Aнтенн SWL
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortwave-SWL-Antenna/
.
¡Todos Son Agradables! - - - Grupo de Radio del oyente
de la onda corta para las Antenas de SWL
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortwave-SWL-Antenna/
.
= = = = = Translation = = = = =
All are Welcome - - - To Join the Shortwave Listeners
(SWL) Antenna Group on YAHOO !
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortwave-SWL-Antenna/
.
.
.. .