"MC" wrote in message
...
I'm picking up AFN on their Puerto Rico freq. of 7.507Mhz. Now this may
not
seem a remarkable thing but I am in the South East of the UK. Again not
remarkable but being new to this Shortwave stuff, I have no idea what I
have
done to enable me to pick up this station. Yesterday I purchased some
common "household" wire (not copper). As I live on the first floor, but
have full "sole" use of the garden I attached one end of the wire near to
my
entrance door (18'/20' from the ground) and it slopes about 60' down to
the
end fence panel at the bottom of the garden. I have then run the wire
back
along the top of the fence about another 42' (I have measured by counting
the 6 foot fence panels) and about 4' from the ground. This gives a sort
of
wedge shape wire antenna (as opposed to an inverted L).
I have attached the wire via home made insulators (made from pieces of
drilled 1" plastic pipe) at both ends and have attached the coax (TV
grade)
directly to the wire at the end near my entrance door. This is then
attached to th "Li-Z" phono antenna socket at the back of my DX-394 (B
revision).
Bearing in mind that the ATN reception is not brilliant but listenable,
does
my antenna sound as though it is OK or do ATN really broadcast from my
neighbours house and is therefore the antenna is crap 
I have no antenna tuner or other equipment (wouldn't know how to use them
even if I did). What other things can I do to improve things, especially
in
the lower 1-3Mhz where I get awful noise (I do not get a huge amount of
noise above this and the higher the freq the less noise I get).
Regards
MC
Hiya :-)
Sounds like a good solution to me. I'm not an expert, but I think the key
to having a good antenna isn't really how much wire you have, or what shape
it is in. What is best is to have an antenna that is constructed to give you
a good "signal to noise ratio" That meaning, if you have an antenna; even a
very long one, that is close to an electronic noise source, your antenna
probably won't be too good. You will get lots of noise and static and it
will drown out lots of good DX. If you live in a densely populated area
like I do here in the NY/NJ metro area, noise is always a factor. One of my
antennas is a 200' random wire. It works great now, but when I first set it
up, it wasn't so good. At first, I had 400' of wire. I got a lot of noise
with it, and even worse then that, I would hear the local 50 kilowatt AM
stations all over the band. After reading a few articles and getting some
advice from other DX'ers, I made some modifications to the antenna. I
shortened it to 200' and I made three additions to the antenna's
construction that really helped with noise. I used a coax feed line from
the receiving wire into the radio and I added a matching transformer between
the coax feed and the receiving wire. I also set up a ground wire that goes
from the radio's ground connection, to the ground connection on my matching
transformer and then into the earth. Since those additions, the antenna is
now a prime DX'ing antenna with great signal to noise ratio. So... The
longer antenna at 400' didn't work so good, but the shorter one does.
I think your wire antenna will probably work good. You have more then
enough receiving wire, and a coax feed. If you want to try to improve on
it, you may want to try using a matching transformer between your receiving
wire and your coax feed. Also... It couldn't hurt to set up a ground if you
already haven't. Again, though... I think the all important factor is the
location of the antenna rather then the size or shape. Your antenna, if set
up near serious noise sources won't work good no matter what you do. If you
take that same antenna and set it up out in the wilderness far away from any
noise sources... VIOLA ... You got a prime DX'ing antenna :-)
Hope that helps...
--
Respectfully,
Michael
Location: Northern NJ
Primary Radio: R-75 with full Kiwa mods.
Antennas: 200ft "Frankenstein" roof wire, G5RV
Additional Radios:GE Super Radio III, PL-550,
KA-1101, KA-1102, Kaiwa KA-989, Info-Mate 837,
Westinghouse H-104 (seven tube)
Home Page:
http://md_dxing.tripod.com/