Here is the situation. I have no access to a ground except for
laying radials on the floor. No outdoor access at all. I want to try an
indoor longwire and an indoor vertical first before experimenting with
an active antenna. My receiver is Radio Shack DX-398 but I plan to get
an Icom R75 or AOR 7030 soon. Question 1 is it better to run the indoor
longwire to the two longest points in the apartment about 25' and have
an inverted L or run the wire along two walls for a total length of
40'.
Question 2 Am I better off getting the MFJ 956 Preselector tuner or
the MFJ 1610 random wire tuner? Question 3 will either of these tuners
work on a vertical like the wire broomstick setup or a loaded coil
vertical?

Thanks

Sean Dayton

Sday's response makes perfect sense. here is an alternative I used
after fussing with SLINK's for a couple years. I am an apartment
dweller

Dont get the preselectors. It's likely your problems isnt seperation of
signals, it's acquiring signals. Sday's post summarized my feelings

here's what I did (review follows)

My DX 398 is VERY sensitive and my first antenna for the DX 398 was an
indoor slinky vertical suspended with a telescoping fiberglass crappie
pole thru the center picked up every electron (choked or not) in the
house. Put the antenna outside, added a 9:1 balun and signal quality
improved 50%

MOVED

NO Yard at all

did this:

THIS will solve all your NO LAND PROBLEMS. Mine is on my porch on a 10'
erect PVC pipe

http://www.northcountryradio.com/Pub...0896/page1.htm


summarized in a few words:

inf*ckin'CREDIBLE!

Here in Winter Garden florida, several hundred feet
from a high tension line I am receiving portions of
the HF bands hitherto unreceivable on vertical slinky
or the DX 398 whip. It works just as welll on the
Ten Tec RX 320

NEVER RECEIVED CITIZEN'S BAND BEFORE !

I CAN with the North County Antenna

I received (tho sometimes couldnt copy) stations all
the way into the 11 M band. Before I couldnt get
higher than 15 M

In Late October I received VOA Philippines -
Normally, I dont receive Asia here. At ALL !

I havent made any adjustments to the gain control
(left it in the middle) and taped over the access
opening in the PVC tube to the gain control mini-pot
to keep moisture out. The antenna doesnt seem to
introduce noise and I am receiving FAR more than I did without it.

My preconceived reservations about active antennas are kaPUT!

Before the North County Radio antenna I couldnt
receive distant 40M stations, tho this morning I am
receiving central Michigan stations, Missouri,South
Carolina, Washington DC,Texas stations, W or KI 1's,
2's ,3's ,5's 4's,9's,0's

It even works well on 75M where a Looooong "war" is
needed

Cut lil' thang! Mebbe 30" long

http://www.northcountryradio.com/Pub...0896/page1.htm

I PVC'd it onto 10 foot of heavy PVC pipe strapped to
my porch fed with interior-type TV video cable (RG 6?)
and radio hooked up with RG 174u (?) that real skinny
coax

When you get yours, get some premade cable with a BNCto
whatever-your-receiver's-antenna-jack-is so you don't hafta solder the
blasted thing..

And you MUST, absolutely, MUST hook up your coax to it with a slip on
F-type cable connecter.

Best regards

Yodar

I sent that to my Alice webtv user name thingy.All of them World War Two
Jeeps sites I have over there are getting loaded up with radio and
antenna sites too.
cuhulin

On 29 Oct 2005 17:42:29 -0700, wrote:

Here is the situation. I have no access to a ground except for
laying radials on the floor. No outdoor access at all. I want to try an
indoor longwire and an indoor vertical first before experimenting with
an active antenna. My receiver is Radio Shack DX-398 but I plan to get
an Icom R75 or AOR 7030 soon. Question 1 is it better to run the indoor
longwire to the two longest points in the apartment about 25' and have
an inverted L or run the wire along two walls for a total length of
40'.

It's only wire. It's cheap. Try them both.

Question 2 Am I better off getting the MFJ 956 Preselector tuner or
the MFJ 1610 random wire tuner? Question 3 will either of these tuners
work on a vertical like the wire broomstick setup or a loaded coil
vertical?

Looking at the quality of the receivers you're considering, I'm not
sure you need an external preselector. Those are mainly for cheapo
receivers.

The MFJ random wire tuner will work on any unbalanced single wire
antenna, whether it is horizontal or vertical. It may help to match
the impedance of that antenna to the antenna input of your receiver,
and give a louder signal. If your receiver has a "high Z" or "high
impedance" or "random wire" connector, there may be less need for the
1610 tuner, but it still may help. Personally, I'd get the tuner --
it'll be there for any single wire antenna you try, and can help,
especially if you're listening to a wide range of frequencies from a
single antenna (and it's not that expensive).

One thing to remember, antenna tuners can make a signal louder, but if
you have a lot of man-made noise at your location, the noise will be
louder, too, so your signal to noise ratio will remain unchanged.

bob
k5qwg


Thanks

Sean Dayton

SD,

For an In-Door Shortwave Listener (SWL) Antenna consider instead a
Ceiling Loop Antenna Around-the-Room along the Walls at Ceiling Level.

These Ceiling Loop Antennas are usually about 36 to 60 Feet long.
These are usually long enough that an Amplifier / Pre-Selector
(Active Antenna) is not required.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortw...a/message/6150

The Wire Antenna Element :
This can be made from Stranded Hook-Up Wire for a single Loop;
300 Ohm Twin Lead for a Series wired Twin Loop; or Speaker Wire
(Paired) for a Series wired Double Loop.

Feed-in-Line for the Ceiling Loop Antenna :
Use a 8-12 Foot longh piece of Twin Lead, Audio Coax Cable;
or Twisted Speaker Wire as a Feed-in-Line from the Ceiling Loop
Antenna Element.

Radio Antenna Connection :
For the Radio Shack DX-398 / Sangean ATS-909 use a "Stereo"
1/8" Plug to plug into the 1/8" "Stereo" External Antenna Jack
on the Radio. Wire One Wire to the Tip and the Other Wire to
the Rear Barrel with the Center un-used.

READ - Try Indoor Antennas First -before-
Trying an Indoor Active Antennas
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortw...a/message/1036
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortw...a/message/1015
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortw...na/message/486

Two "TV" Parts SWL Antennas with Noise Reduction Properties
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortw...na/message/207

Two InDoor "Hidden" SWL Antenna Ideas
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shortw...na/message/209


hope this helps - iane ~ RHF