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

I do not get a huge amount of
noise above this and the higher the freq the less noise I get

Hi MC-
The antenna sounds like a very nice compromise for your situation, and you're
better off than some folks I know. Getting a hundred or so feet of wire
outside, no matter how high, is a much better start toward better reception
than using an active antenna (which some folks have to use because they can't
even get ten feet of wire outside!) or other compromise system.
It sounds like it's working well for you, orthodox or not.
As for the noise, if you're living in an urban or otherwise electrically noisy
environment, you're going to find that noise in the lower bands, and there's
not much you can do about it immediately, or without other gear.
You CAN figure out a way to ground the antenna and the coax feedline to reduce
that noise considerably, and if it's really done right it may get rid of most
of the noise right off the bat, but this requires ground rods hammered into the
earth (having 'sole' use of the garden may allow this?) and ground lines/straps
to do it right. Search online and ask this room about low-noise grounding
systems for SW reception.
You can also purchase a noise-cancelling/phasing unit, such as the ANC-4 from
JPS or MFJ's 1026. These units take the input from TWO antennas (your main
antenna and a second auxilliary noise sampling antenna) and you then use the
unit to phase out the noise. Such units can also null an unwanted station on a
given frequency, so that you may hear a station you DO want on the same
frequency, so it can do two jobs for you!
I use one of these units and it works VERY well at removing hash and noise, but
takes some practice to use correctly. You'd also have to set up another antenna
to phase between and you may not have the same amount of room for a second
antenna. It would need to be seperated from the main antenna to some extent,
and should be able to hear the noise as well as the first antenna to really do
it right.
There's a LOT to get into when it comes to antenna grounds and noise-cancelling
gear, and I'm neither an expert nor have time to get into it all, hahah, but
I'm certain others in here have better advice and can lead you to some useful
sites for just this purpose.
Bottom line on the antenna though, get as much wire outside, as high and in the
open as you can, and safely away from power lines, and what works, works. Most
of us are lacking the full antenna land we want, so you build what you can and
go for it. Sounds like you've got a winner there!
Good luck-
Linus

- Sounds like a great antenna to me !!


Subject: Is this homemade antenna OK
From: "MC"
Date: 4/15/2004 7:22 PM Eastern Standard Time
Message-id:

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

Sound like your off to a goood start. I would recamend reading up on ant.
design. Joe Carr's Receiving Antenna Handbook & Practical Antenna Handbook
is a good start. Both can be found on Ebay or used book outlets online.


--
73 Brian
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. Some kind of high powered mutant
never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare
to die.

Brian's Radio Universe
http://webpages.charter.net/brianehill/

"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/

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

MC,
You did a fine job to pick that up, I don't know what everyon else is
saying.....I haven't read it yet.

O often been curious about trying another antenna on another hookup on the
back, just never got around to it.

Good job and have fun. :-)

~*~*Monitoring The AirWaves~*~
*****GO BEARCATS*****
Hammarlund HQ129X /Heathkit Q Multiplier
Hammarlund HQ140X
Multiple GE P-780's(GREAT BCB Radios)
RCA Victor *Strato- World*
RCA Victor RJC77W-K(Walnut Grain)
1942 Zenith Wave Magnet 6G 601M
Cathedral/ Ross#2311/Rhapsody-MultiBand
DX100/394/398/399/402
OMGS Transistor Eight/Realistic 12-1451
Henry Kloss Model One/Bell+Howell
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Alpha Delta DX Sloper 57ft.
600ft. 12AWG. (non-terminated)
120ft. 12 AWG Sloper
2 Radio Shack Loop Antennas
Radio Shack Amplified Antenna
30X30 DiamondLoop(six section 830pf Cap)
* Diamond Loop mounted to Lazy Susan TurnTable*

"-=jd=-" wrote in message
...
On Thu 15 Apr 2004 07:22:57p, "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).

{snipped}


My non-scientific rule of thumb is:

1. Assess your situation.
2. String as much wire as you can, as high as you can, along the best path
available.

If 100' long by 4' high is all you can do - then that's all you can do.
That's your foundation. What's left is the "tweaking" and "accesorizing".
There are so many variables that you could probably say every situation is
different. Someone else you know in a similar situation could string a
similar antenna and (frustratingly) obtain (largely or slightly) different
results. Your best bet? Educate yourself (the web will take you pretty far
on the subject) and experiment with the cheap/easy stuff first. Your best
bet for finding the direction you want to go is from experimentation.

What are a couple of cheap/easy ideas? Install a known good ground and a
matching transformer to better transfer antenna-to-coax. The effect (if
any) may be large or slight.

You might also want to peruse the links at:
http://www.hard-core-dx.com/nordicdx/antenna/

It has a lot of good info if you are looking for ideas. What you glean
from there can be used to google-up some more info.

-=jd=-
--

Good link. Thanks.

MC

"Michael" wrote in message
. ..


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


Thanks for the input.

I'm in the middle of town (more or less) but most utility cables are
underground. However, my garden is enclosed amongst the buildings, mixture
of residential and retail (none more that 2 floors, ground and first).

I have grounded the antenna at the farthest end of the wire (nearest to the
ground). I have not grounded the coax though as it is not pactical due to
the distance between the coax and the ground itself. The other alternative
would mean creating an unhappy wife should I run wire around the flat
seeking out the nearest water pipe.

Regards

MC

"MC" wrote in message [snip]
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).

Presumably the LO-Z input, not the HI-Z. Switching between inputs can
have some interesting and maybe useful effects, the differences
varying with frequency.

[snip]
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).

If the noise source is primarily inside your house, shielding the
DX-394 can help. With an antenna of that size, you are probably
overloading it with strong MW signals causing the generation of hash
in this region. A high pass filter to attenuate the MW signals will be
a great help.

For more on how to get the most out of your DX-394, join the 600
member http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RADIOSHACKDX394/ .

73, Tom

Hello MC,

To echo many of the other posts your antenna sounds great!

Great example of a homebrew shortwave antenna. Receiving AFN from
Puerto Rico on 7.507 MHz is pretty good. I can confirm this is indeed
located at this location with no relays. If you want to be picky you
can improve things further by:

Use a coaxial (50ohm/75ohm) coax from the radio to the antenna outside

Where the coax connects to the antenna run a conductor to a good earth
ground (i.e. ground rod)

purchase install an antenna tuner after the radio to tune the antenna.
This will assist in removing alot of that noise.

Below are some websites with are useful when making antennas such as
you have done. Again, good job.

http://www.qsl.net/k5eph/UnderstandingAntennas.htm
http://www.rnw.nl/realradio/practical/html/passive.html
http://www.angelfire.com/mb/amandx/dipole.html
http://members.fortunecity.com/xe1bef/hf-antennas.htm

Homac




"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