In article 1137647484.744500@teuthos, adam214
wrote:

I was looking around and i found this from sangean
http://www.ozgear.com.au/Sangean/ANT60.htm its a portable antenna and
i was wondering if anyone have seen/tried it?.I need an antenna
because with my normal antenna that comes with my radio it is close
to impossible to get ANYTHING in the daytime.

Welcome to the often mysterious world of SW receiving antennas.

You will have to pay close attention as to whether you are in fact
receiving nothing or a high background noise level due to local
electronic noise sources. Signal levels can be a relative thing as that
to receive a station it has to overcome two things:

1. It has to greater than your radios internal noise floor for you to
hear it.

2. It has to overcome any local noise generated in the area.

This is not perfect because even the collapsed antenna will pick up
some signal noise but that said...

With the antenna collapsed and your hands away from it you should be
able to turn up the volume most of the way when you are not tuned to a
station and hear a random broad spectrum noise usually described as
hiss or white noise. This is the radios internal noise.

Then extend the antenna all the way in a vertical position and the
white noise level should only go up a little. It will go up more on the
lower bands and less on the upper bands. The increase if any is the
external noise.

Now if the difference in background noise is large between collapsed
and extended antenna then you have a local noise problem and you should
try another location where outdoors is usually better. If the
difference in the background noise is small then you can try connecting
an external antenna.

Easiest thing to do is to string about 10 to 25 feet of wire off the
ground then vertically to the radio antenna wrapping the wire about 10
turns around the base of the collapsed antenna base. If this pulls in
more signal for you (it should) then you could also explore the antenna
jack on the radio if it has one. Find the proper plug that goes in the
jack, most likely a 1/8 phono jack, and solder the wire to the plug
tip.

If the external antenna however connected to the radio makes a large
difference in the in the background noise be aware that any possibly
increase in the signal will have to overcome it. Good reception
requires a significant difference between the received noise and the
signal you want to listen too. Sometimes that may mean the radio might
work better by itself and other times better with an external antenna.
This relative difference will change depending on whether you string it
near a local noise source such as a computer.

Using the radios whip antenna is convenient and the extended external
wire is just an extension of that whip. If this is not working well
enough for what you want to receive then you need a better type of
antenna possibly in a better location.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California