I recently acquired an Icom IC-706MKII radio. My plan, before I get my license and begin transmitting, is to use the radio for a general coverage and shortwave receiving.

The IC-706 has two coaxial antenna ports and I am looking for antenna suggestions for monitoring shortwave. I live in a house and have the ability to string just about anything up.

Looking for recommendations for a great all-around shortwave antenna that will connect to the coaxial port.

On 9/19/2012 11:11 PM, ultravista wrote:


The IC-706 has two coaxial antenna ports and I am looking for antenna
suggestions for monitoring shortwave. I live in a house and have the
ability to string just about anything up.

Just about anything will work. Down to a simple random length of wire
stuck in the center conductor of the HF port, and draped around the
living area or yard.

"ultravista" wrote in message
...

I recently acquired an Icom IC-706MKII radio. My plan, before I get my
license and begin transmitting, is to use the radio for a general
coverage and shortwave receiving.

The IC-706 has two coaxial antenna ports and I am looking for antenna
suggestions for monitoring shortwave. I live in a house and have the
ability to string just about anything up.

Looking for recommendations for a great all-around shortwave antenna
that will connect to the coaxial port.

As NM5K said, just about any wire stuck in the HF antenna port will work.
As you plan on getting a license, you may want to look at what is often
called a Carolina Windom. It is a wire about 130 feet long, about 45 feet
from one the wire is cut and a 4 to 1 balun is put in. From this, about 20
feet of coax comes down, then a bead type choke is installed, and from there
enough coax to reach into the shack. The 20 feet of coax should be vertical
if possiable. This antenna will often need a tuner to transmitt with, but
for receiving, it will work very well without one. I use that type with my
Icom 746 and it works very well at 50 feet.
I have also used it at around 30 feet with a 706 and it works ok.

On Thu, 20 Sep 2012 04:11:29 +0000, ultravista
wrote in
:
....
Looking for recommendations for a great all-around shortwave antenna
that will connect to the coaxial port.


I've used this one for several years with good results:

http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/sw_ant/2205.html

The Par Electronics EF-SWL is an end-fed short wave antenna optimally
designed for 1-30 MHz reception. The radiator is 45 feet of genuine
#18 black polyethylene coated Flex-Weave wire.

This antenna wire is very strong yet can easily be coiled like a rope
for portable work. The UV resistant matchbox houses a wideband 9:1
transformer wound on a binocular core. Unlike other transformers,
external stainless studs on the matchbox allow the user to configure
the primary and secondary grounds for best noise reduction at their
particular location. Examples are given in the manual. Output is via a
silver/teflon SO239 UHF connector (ready to accept a PL-259). Lead-in
coax cable is not provided.

The radiator also attaches via a stainless stud allowing it to be
removed, or replaced with a different length radiator for experimental
purposes. The newly redesigned snag-proof insulators are very strong.
The included manual shows typical radiation patterns for selected
frequencies through out the HF spectrum. (This is a receive-only
antenna).

Order #2205
List Price: $75.00
Your Price: $72.95

Spend your money once and spend it right.

My first antenna was a G5RV which is a poor antenna and is a non resonant antenna, that does work on 20 meters, but only 20 meters.

My second antenna was a Solorcon / Antron A99 Vertical - which works well for 10 / 12 / 15 and 17 - with my internal antenna tuner.
I do not like external antenna tuners.

Your technician class license will not allow you to operate anything lower then 10 meters phone 28.300 - 28.500 MHz USB....

If you are going to spend good money on a resonant HF antenna - that does not require a expensive antenna tuner - you would want to purchase a Barker & Williamson BWD 90 - folded dipole.

I'm not sure if you are going to be happy with your combo HF / VHF / UHF transceiver. It lacks good filtering and doesn't do anything especially well - other then it affords you the opportunity to use it in more then one band or mode...

The price of the B&W will probably be one third of what you spent on the 706..

For listening, it doesn't matter how high you put it up, as long as you put it up and use the best possible coax to feed it.

Two meters / 440 - you would want to purchase a Diamond X 500 and get it up as high as you can and feed it with the best possible coax such as the Belden 9913F7 or LMR 400

El 21-09-12 1:56, NM5K escribió:
On 9/19/2012 11:11 PM, ultravista wrote:


The IC-706 has two coaxial antenna ports and I am looking for antenna
suggestions for monitoring shortwave. I live in a house and have the
ability to string just about anything up.

Just about anything will work. Down to a simple random length of wire
stuck in the center conductor of the HF port, and draped around the
living area or yard.




A long wire from outside that goes directly to the receiver's
asymmetrical input will very likely provide sufficient signal for the
receiver. It may also receive lots of noise from indoor
electronic/electrical equipment. When external noise dominates,
further wire length increase will not help (excluding the very loooong
ones that operate in traveling wave mode).

If you have the possibility, use coaxial cable for the interior part
(75 or 50 Ohms). Don’t worry about mismatch, for reception you just
need sufficient signal.

Make sure you connect the braid of the exterior side of the coaxial
cable to a ground provision. This can be a ground stake, but every
large metallic structure can be used for that. You may add some common
mode choke (based on ferrite cores or rods) to further reduce the
effect of indoor generated noise.

If you live in a very low noise environment, using a 9:1 transformer
will give more signal and noise, given certain wire length. If
external noise already dominates, spending lots of money for a 9:1
transformer will not increase your S/N ratio.

Regarding the long wire or loop discussion; whether a loop is useful
or not depends on frequency band and local EM environment. You need to
try as you can't say beforehand what will work better.


--
Wim
PA3DJS
www.tetech.nl
Please remove abc first in case of PM

"Channel Jumper" wrote in message
...


Spend your money once and spend it right.

My first antenna was a G5RV which is a poor antenna and is a non
resonant antenna, that does work on 20 meters, but only 20 meters.

My second antenna was a Solorcon / Antron A99 Vertical - which works
well for 10 / 12 / 15 and 17 - with my internal antenna tuner.
I do not like external antenna tuners.

Your technician class license will not allow you to operate anything
lower then 10 meters phone 28.300 - 28.500 MHz USB....

If you are going to spend good money on a resonant HF antenna - that
does not require a expensive antenna tuner - you would want to purchase
a Barker & Williamson BWD 90 - folded dipole.

I'm not sure if you are going to be happy with your combo HF / VHF / UHF
transceiver. It lacks good filtering and doesn't do anything especially
well - other then it affords you the opportunity to use it in more then
one band or mode...

The price of the B&W will probably be one third of what you spent on the
706..

For listening, it doesn't matter how high you put it up, as long as you
put it up and use the best possible coax to feed it.

Two meters / 440 - you would want to purchase a Diamond X 500 and get it
up as high as you can and feed it with the best possible coax such as
the Belden 9913F7 or LMR 400


For the cost of the B&W BWD 90 you can get a tuner and use a more simple
dipole. The B&W is really just a big dummy load of an antenna. I have
worked several stations that use them and they were not very strong
compaired to other stations near them. The military uses them because they
can run plenty of power to make up for the short commings of the B&W. Also
they operate over many frequencies and want something simple that will cover
them. It is almost like a radiating dummy load.

The G5RV is ok if high enough. Still nothing special except for maybe 20
meters if the stations are in the correct direction. It does need tuner for
transmitting.

For just receiving, just about anything is ok as many have mentioned.

There is nothing wrong with the Icom 706 for casual use. I have one and a
746pro and they compair very well for casual usage except for the filtering
the 746 has. I do have a cw filter in the 706 that helps out for cw and
rtty. For the price, the 706 is a fine radio.

ultravista skrev 2012-09-20 06:11:
I recently acquired an Icom IC-706MKII radio. My plan, before I get my
license and begin transmitting, is to use the radio for a general
coverage and shortwave receiving.

The IC-706 has two coaxial antenna ports and I am looking for antenna
suggestions for monitoring shortwave. I live in a house and have the
ability to string just about anything up.

Looking for recommendations for a great all-around shortwave antenna
that will connect to the coaxial port.



A very nice antenna is the horizontal loop. If you feed it with a open
ladder line you can work the whole HF band. At the station side you need
to use a balun, the guanella balun does a great job.

You don't even have to make the loop resonant, I have a loop with 135
meters circumference, the feeder is an open ladder line ending in a
guanella balun. I can use all bands from 160m to 10m on that antenna,
using my rigs internal match.

No matter what antenna you finally choose, you have to get it up as high
as you can, if you want to get connections from far away anyway.

/Ben - SM0KBW

I think it is more then obvious that you do not know what you are talking about when it comes to antenna's.

The key to any antenna is LOCATION / LOCATION / LOCATION....

If you are in a crappy location, it is not going to work well...

If you are in a good location, the B & W 90 will out talk your Carolina Windom or any other long wire antenna, due to the fact that antenna tuners reduce the amount of power applied and they do not physically tune the antenna, just the coax to the antenna. The only tuners that works is the ones that are placed directly at the feed point of the antenna, not something inside of the shack...

The B&W 90 on 20 meters acts kind of like a beam antenna, which exhibits some forward gain - due to the nature of it's construction.
The one wire acts like a reflector while the other wire acts like a driven element.

On 40 meters it still acts like a 1.5 wave antenna and on 80 meters it acts like a Dipole antenna...

On 160 meters - if you wanted to be all that you could be - it would need to be 80' or more } depending upon terrain } off the ground to get in the right place for it to be at optimum height...
It also depends upon the ground {earth } underneath the antenna...
Wet / swampy earth is always better then rocky dry soil....

You have to realize what arrival angle the DX signals come in at and the fact that there is two signals you are receiving, both the direct path { good} and the reflection off the earth { bad} at Gb before reaching our station location..

Unless you compared the two antenna's at the same location at the same time, at the same height within one hour of each other, there is no way for sure for you to comment about which antenna works best...

10 - 40 meters band equals about 19.9 meters of height mininum / needed to get optimal angle.

20 meters likes about 32 meters of height, heights between 15 and 32 meters - { 50 - 105 feet are about as good as you can get} for anything between 6 meters and 160 meters....

Most people just puts their wire antenna in a tree about 40' high or strings it up between two towers and calls it good enough.
The problem is - there is a null on the ends of the antenna and the path that the signal uses isn't always a straight line...

The problem is - with a 160 meter antenna, this is hard to accomplish, hence it is easier to use a vertical antenna for 80 and 160 meters - but is very expensive to use a base tuner and a 80 / 160 meter vertical antenna - which must be supported by some type of tower in most locations.

The wind would damage it quickly and its survival rate would be poor without some type of support...

At the same time, my antenna is mounted 20' off the ground between two houses, and a jib boom mounted on the back of my house, fed with 40' of cheap Radio Shack coax and it still talks well in most directions.

I can hear north / south / east / west with a antenna that is aimed east and west and sometimes when the Maritime Mobile net or the YL network needs a relay station, I can relay between two signals - where they are using some type of beam antenna for the monitoring station and the person trying to check in either has a beam with a poor signal or a G5RV...
And I never run more then 100 watts!

Even when they are running 1000 watts - my signal still is better then most peoples signals on 20 and 40 meters....
If I really need some help, I just turn on the processor and it has enough compression that I can get through, even when there is a pile up...

"Channel Jumper" wrote in message
...

I think it is more then obvious that you do not know what you are
talking about when it comes to antenna's.

The key to any antenna is LOCATION / LOCATION / LOCATION....

If you are in a crappy location, it is not going to work well...

If you are in a good location, the B & W 90 will out talk your Carolina
Windom or any other long wire antenna, due to the fact that antenna
tuners reduce the amount of power applied and they do not physically
tune the antenna, just the coax to the antenna. The only tuners that
works is the ones that are placed directly at the feed point of the
antenna, not something inside of the shack...

The B&W 90 on 20 meters acts kind of like a beam antenna, which exhibits
some forward gain - due to the nature of it's construction.
The one wire acts like a reflector while the other wire acts like a
driven element.

From someone that did not know about the ringo type antenna and what it took
to make it a halfwave, you make the statement that I don't know what I am
talking about when it comes to antennas.

Now you are saying that because the B&W has two wires it acts like a beam.
This is not correct at all.

A tuner will allow antennas to match the nominal 50 ohm output of a
transmitter to the antenna system that is not 50 ohms. You will loose about
5 to 10 percent of the power in a tuner. That crappy B&W burns up most of
its power in that big resistor in the middle of it.

The simple wire antennas while having gain in one direction will not have
gain in another direction. Unless you have specific stations to talk with,
the gain may be useless if it is in the wrong direction.