Mark wrote:
I currently have four Sony HF radios which will shortly be joined a JRC
NRD-545. I also currently have two antennas, a longwire and a di-pole.

Time for a tidy-up! What does everybody do when they want to share two or
three antennas amongst several radios (short of constanly unplugging and
replugging everything)?

Can I simply build myself a switch box? Put each antenna onto a common bus
and use switches to assign to the various outputs that are connected to the
various receivers?

Can it be that simple?

Yep!

What kind of connectors do you have on the antennas?

A simple thing you could do is put PL-259 connectors (the same kind
generally used on CB antennas) on each antenna. Get a rotary coax
switch (available at ham shops such as http://www.aesham.com or
http://www.hamradio.com or http://www.mfjenterprises.com) for each
receiver. Use T-connectors and short coax jumpers to wire each antenna
to the same position on all five switches. That way, you can assign any
antenna to any radio.

(it wouldn't be particularly hard to build a switch box yourself either,
if you're good at soldering. There are no special construction
techniques; just keep wire lengths reasonably short (6" or less) and try
to keep the wires for the various antennas away from each other.
(otherwise signal will "leak" from one to the other)

There's nothing wrong with using the same antenna on more than one radio
at the same time.

A multicoupler is certainly the "right" way to do it, but is probably
overkill for what you're doing.

And what of using two antennas at once?

It'll be relatively hard to design a switching arrangement that does
this while still allowing any receiver to access any antenna. But if
you can work it out, two antennas at once is no problem.

People have been known to tune the same station with two different
radios, each hooked to a different antenna. The fading patterns are
often different on different antennas, so when the station fades out on
one it may fade up on the other.

I'm thinking of feeding all the record outputs to a small multi-channel
mixer. (I currently have a home recording studio, so I can then feed the
output to a nice amp and set of speakers).

That's certainly a good way of handling the audio.

Please don't let people tell you you shouldn't hook shortwave radios to
a high-fidelity amplifier/speakers. Having decent audio quality makes
listening a lot more comfortable & enjoyable. You can always use the
selectivity controls on the radio to eliminate noise & interference.
(and in your case, the EQ controls on the mixer - maybe you have some
other audio gear that can be used to "scrub" the SW audio too?)
--
Doug Smith W9WI
Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66
http://www.w9wi.com