This is a very general question. I'm looking for a very 'general'
answer, nothing particularly specific or 'brand' oriented.
What is a good listening or SWL antenna? Range would be from the
broadcast bands up through VHF/UHF. The 'attributes' of bigger and
higher come to mind, but how about something more than that?
- 'Doc

Keeping the answers sort of general, not too technical for the average
person who knows little about radio stuff.

wrote:
This is a very general question. I'm looking for a very 'general'
answer, nothing particularly specific or 'brand' oriented.
What is a good listening or SWL antenna? Range would be from the
broadcast bands up through VHF/UHF.

For general SWLing, it's hard to beat a twinlead
center-fed dipole. For VHF/UHF, a discone is probably
a good choice. (VHF/UHF is not SW)
--
73, Cecil http://www.w5dxp.com

Cecil Moore wrote:
wrote:
This is a very general question. I'm looking for a very 'general'
answer, nothing particularly specific or 'brand' oriented.
What is a good listening or SWL antenna? Range would be from the
broadcast bands up through VHF/UHF.

For general SWLing, it's hard to beat a twinlead
center-fed dipole. For VHF/UHF, a discone is probably
a good choice. (VHF/UHF is not SW)
====================================
Indeed for VHF-UHF a discone is reasonably universal.
For MF-HF a twinlead centre-fed dipole is great but one should include a
matching box (tuner if you like ) to get the best out of this antenna,to
connect it to any receiver (usually having an unbalanced antenna
connection)
Otherwise a length of 'free-hanging'wire will be good enough .


Frank GM0CSZ / KN6WH

On Sun, 17 Aug 2008 06:59:52 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

This is a very general question. I'm looking for a very 'general'
answer, nothing particularly specific or 'brand' oriented.
What is a good listening or SWL antenna? Range would be from the
broadcast bands up through VHF/UHF. The 'attributes' of bigger and
higher come to mind, but how about something more than that?

I took a $40 Radio Shack SW radio to South Africa last October for
several weeks. It had a standard 3 foot extendable whip that couldn't
hear short wave until I clipped some wire-wrap wire onto the end and
lobbed the ww wire up onto the roof of our cottage (while sitting
outside in the evening or the morning). All-in-all about 20 feet of
wire with a nickel taped to the end to help tossing it. I got more
stations than I knew what to do with. No additional wire was
necessary for VHF (FM), of course, and UHF would have only needed the
whip collapsed to match (if UHF were available for that radio).

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

What kind of receiver? A small "scanner" type receiver, for example,
typically overloads if connected to a large antenna, so a short whip
works best for much of the range.

And how "good" is "good"? If you use a long antenna at high frequencies,
it'll have multiple lobes. So there will be many directions where you
won't hear very well. Is that ok for your application? No single antenna
will do terribly well over that entire frequency range.

My suggestion is that the person asking the question get a roll of wire
(hookup or magnet wire is fine) and experiment, to see what's best, or
good enough, for his particular receiver, location, and listening habits.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

wrote:
This is a very general question. I'm looking for a very 'general'
answer, nothing particularly specific or 'brand' oriented.
What is a good listening or SWL antenna? Range would be from the
broadcast bands up through VHF/UHF. The 'attributes' of bigger and
higher come to mind, but how about something more than that?
- 'Doc

Keeping the answers sort of general, not too technical for the average
person who knows little about radio stuff.

I ran across this 'question' on a forum. The general consensus
appears to be the same in both places. Typically, bigger is better,
to some ridiculous point. Higher is also better to some ridiculous
point. Just depends on what you have available for the antenna and
placing the antenna, and what it'll be connected to. And, there's no
simple, cheap, small antenna that does -everything- well from day-
light to dark. My main purpose was any rules-of-thumb (ROT, I like
that one!) that apply to antennas in general. Depending on just how
'general' you want to be, I think it's been covered.
- 'Doc

On Mon, 18 Aug 2008 05:54:58 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

I ran across this 'question' on a forum. The general consensus
appears to be the same in both places. Typically, bigger is better,
to some ridiculous point. Higher is also better to some ridiculous
point. Just depends on what you have available for the antenna and
placing the antenna, and what it'll be connected to. And, there's no
simple, cheap, small antenna that does -everything- well from day-
light to dark. My main purpose was any rules-of-thumb (ROT, I like
that one!) that apply to antennas in general. Depending on just how
'general' you want to be, I think it's been covered.
- 'Doc

I've noticed in one of the swl groups they're awfully big on random
wires hooked to 9-to-1 baluns, plus a ground wire.

bob
k5qwg

What's the point in using a balun if the feed line and antenna are
both unbalanced? Sort of a contradiction, isn't it?
- 'Doc

wrote:
What's the point in using a balun if the feed line and antenna are
both unbalanced? Sort of a contradiction, isn't it?
- 'Doc

The purpose of a balun is to balance the feedline, that is, cause the
currents in the two conductors to be equal and opposite so it doesn't
radiate or receive signals. Either twinlead or coax can be either
unbalanced or balanced. If the feedline is unbalanced, as you say, a
balun will prevent the line from radiating or receiving signals.

Anyone interested in learning more about this topic can find more
information at http://eznec.com/Amateur/Articles/Baluns.pdf.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL