Hi
I am wondering if I have my longwire set correctly, maybe you could advise
please.
At the moment I have a sloping long-wire of about 50 foot, going from the
top of a mast on my house about 35 foot tall to the top of a washing line
post about 12 foot tall. I have connected the lonwire to my radio by means
of CB-coax, what I have done is to attach the centre core of the coax to the
longwire and I have cut the outer sheath on the coax near to the ground and
connected an earhtwire that is soldered to a cold water main supply pipe as
an earth.
Only the centre wire on the coax is connected to the actual longwire.

Is there a way I could do better.

I am thinking about getting an active antenna, the Sony AN-1

Would this work better for me or is there a better alternative available.
I am running an Icom R72
thanks
Rikk

On Sun, 05 Mar 2006 13:25:52 GMT, "Rikk"
wrote:

Hi
I am wondering if I have my longwire set correctly, maybe you could advise
please.
At the moment I have a sloping long-wire of about 50 foot, going from the
top of a mast on my house about 35 foot tall to the top of a washing line
post about 12 foot tall. I have connected the lonwire to my radio by means
of CB-coax, what I have done is to attach the centre core of the coax to the
longwire and I have cut the outer sheath on the coax near to the ground and
connected an earhtwire that is soldered to a cold water main supply pipe as
an earth.
Only the centre wire on the coax is connected to the actual longwire.

Is there a way I could do better.

I am thinking about getting an active antenna, the Sony AN-1

Would this work better for me or is there a better alternative available.
I am running an Icom R72
thanks
Rikk


You're losing at least half your signal. These match the wire to the
cable.

http://www.geocities.com/qrp_baluns/LM.html

Rikk wrote:
Hi
I am wondering if I have my longwire set correctly, maybe you could advise
please.
At the moment I have a sloping long-wire of about 50 foot, going from the
top of a mast on my house about 35 foot tall to the top of a washing line
post about 12 foot tall. I have connected the lonwire to my radio by means
of CB-coax, what I have done is to attach the centre core of the coax to the
longwire and I have cut the outer sheath on the coax near to the ground and
connected an earhtwire that is soldered to a cold water main supply pipe as
an earth.
Only the centre wire on the coax is connected to the actual longwire.

Is there a way I could do better.

I am thinking about getting an active antenna, the Sony AN-1

Would this work better for me or is there a better alternative available.
I am running an Icom R72
thanks
Rikk

This looks like a good design.

An AN-LP1 wil not do much compared to your current rig.

What are the RF conditions like ; is it a " radio Quiet / Electronics
Quiet"rural area
or are ou in the midst of an urban area..

You'll see a huge improvement if you using a matching transformer between
the long wire and the coax. Also try to keep that matching transformer as
far from the house as possible.

"Rikk" wrote in message
...
Hi
I am wondering if I have my longwire set correctly, maybe you could advise
please.
At the moment I have a sloping long-wire of about 50 foot, going from the
top of a mast on my house about 35 foot tall to the top of a washing line
post about 12 foot tall. I have connected the lonwire to my radio by means
of CB-coax, what I have done is to attach the centre core of the coax to
the longwire and I have cut the outer sheath on the coax near to the
ground and connected an earhtwire that is soldered to a cold water main
supply pipe as an earth.
Only the centre wire on the coax is connected to the actual longwire.

Is there a way I could do better.

I am thinking about getting an active antenna, the Sony AN-1

Would this work better for me or is there a better alternative available.
I am running an Icom R72
thanks
Rikk

Hi
I live in a rural area. nearest city is 6 miles
thanks
Rikk



wrote in message
ups.com...

Rikk wrote:
Hi
I am wondering if I have my longwire set correctly, maybe you could
advise
please.
At the moment I have a sloping long-wire of about 50 foot, going from the
top of a mast on my house about 35 foot tall to the top of a washing
line
post about 12 foot tall. I have connected the lonwire to my radio by
means
of CB-coax, what I have done is to attach the centre core of the coax to
the
longwire and I have cut the outer sheath on the coax near to the ground
and
connected an earhtwire that is soldered to a cold water main supply pipe
as
an earth.
Only the centre wire on the coax is connected to the actual longwire.

Is there a way I could do better.

I am thinking about getting an active antenna, the Sony AN-1

Would this work better for me or is there a better alternative available.
I am running an Icom R72
thanks
Rikk

This looks like a good design.

An AN-LP1 wil not do much compared to your current rig.

What are the RF conditions like ; is it a " radio Quiet / Electronics
Quiet"rural area
or are ou in the midst of an urban area..

"David" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 05 Mar 2006 13:25:52 GMT, "Rikk"
wrote:

Hi
I am wondering if I have my longwire set correctly, maybe you could advise
please.
At the moment I have a sloping long-wire of about 50 foot, going from the
top of a mast on my house about 35 foot tall to the top of a washing line
post about 12 foot tall. I have connected the lonwire to my radio by means
of CB-coax, what I have done is to attach the centre core of the coax to
the
longwire and I have cut the outer sheath on the coax near to the ground
and
connected an earhtwire that is soldered to a cold water main supply pipe
as
an earth.
Only the centre wire on the coax is connected to the actual longwire.

Is there a way I could do better.

I am thinking about getting an active antenna, the Sony AN-1

Would this work better for me or is there a better alternative available.
I am running an Icom R72
thanks
Rikk


You're losing at least half your signal. These match the wire to the
cable.

http://www.geocities.com/qrp_baluns/LM.html


Hi David
I visited the website you mentioned. and think the LMZ-50 would be best for
me.
How exactly does this work please, do I simply connect the longwire to the
balun, and the run coax from balun to radio via cb coax.
thanks
Rikk

That sounds like a good rig, but it is going to be more efficient at lower
frequencies. You might rig up another one about 1/4 that length and use it
for higher frequencies.

50 feet=50x3.28=164 meters
300/164=1.8 Mhz which is in medium wave band

12 feet=41 meters
300/42=7.31

6 feet=19.68 meters
300/19.68=15.24 Mhz

While it isn't necessary to have an exact match, down to the millimeter,
getting the length nearly correct is important, because of the signal
strength losses mentioned in the previous post. This is why a longwire is
very useful for very low frequencies. At higher frequencies you get more
noise than signal.

If you try to use a high power transmitter with an antenna badly matched for
the band on which you are transmitting, most of your energy will simply
comes crashing back at your trasmitter and burn up your circuitry s.

Some lucky individuals intersted in very low frequency phenomena have the
space to run wires miles in length, and need special arrangements to
accommodate the incredible voltages generated. Many very strange natural
signals lurk on frequencies that would be voice frequencies if they were
sound, and are very strange indeed.
http://www.auroralchorus.com/wr3gde.htm
He has some interesting recordings at another link you can find on that
site. HTH V

HTH V.

All life all holiness come from you O Lord

"Rikk" wrote in message
...
Hi
I live in a rural area. nearest city is 6 miles
thanks
Rikk



wrote in message
ups.com...

Rikk wrote:
Hi
I am wondering if I have my longwire set correctly, maybe you could
advise
please.
At the moment I have a sloping long-wire of about 50 foot, going from
the
top of a mast on my house about 35 foot tall to the top of a washing
line
post about 12 foot tall. I have connected the lonwire to my radio by
means
of CB-coax, what I have done is to attach the centre core of the coax to
the
longwire and I have cut the outer sheath on the coax near to the ground
and
connected an earhtwire that is soldered to a cold water main supply pipe
as
an earth.
Only the centre wire on the coax is connected to the actual longwire.

Is there a way I could do better.

I am thinking about getting an active antenna, the Sony AN-1

Would this work better for me or is there a better alternative
available.
I am running an Icom R72
thanks
Rikk

This looks like a good design.

An AN-LP1 wil not do much compared to your current rig.

What are the RF conditions like ; is it a " radio Quiet / Electronics
Quiet"rural area
or are ou in the midst of an urban area..

On Sun, 05 Mar 2006 16:11:09 GMT, "Rikk"
wrote:




Hi David
I visited the website you mentioned. and think the LMZ-50 would be best for
me.
How exactly does this work please, do I simply connect the longwire to the
balun, and the run coax from balun to radio via cb coax.
thanks
Rikk


You can use plain old RG-6 Cable TV coax if you like. You use a 75
Ohm matcher at the antenna and the appropriate mechanical adapter at
the receiver. If you have a portable, use a flexible adapter to keep
strain off the little plug.

"Rikk" wrote in message
...
Hi
I am wondering if I have my longwire set correctly, maybe you could advise
please.
At the moment I have a sloping long-wire of about 50 foot, going from the
top of a mast on my house about 35 foot tall to the top of a washing line
post about 12 foot tall. I have connected the lonwire to my radio by means
of CB-coax, what I have done is to attach the centre core of the coax to
the longwire and I have cut the outer sheath on the coax near to the
ground and connected an earhtwire that is soldered to a cold water main
supply pipe as an earth.
Only the centre wire on the coax is connected to the actual longwire.

Is there a way I could do better.

I am thinking about getting an active antenna, the Sony AN-1

Would this work better for me or is there a better alternative available.
I am running an Icom R72
thanks
Rikk



Hi Guys
Thanks all very much for your help, I appreciate your comments, I have opted
to order a balun from a supplier mention on this thread and see how it goes
from there.
I shall also try a few of your other suggestions as they are really
interesting in therory.
As you can probably see, I am relativly new to sw and until now have been
using the SW77 on it's telescopic antenna, but time for me to move forward a
bit, so I will see what I can do with the R72
thanks again
Rikk
United Kingdom

It's not a given that cutting back the antenna will yield better
reception. You are reducing the aperture.

Verstaldin wrote:
That sounds like a good rig, but it is going to be more efficient at lower
frequencies. You might rig up another one about 1/4 that length and use it
for higher frequencies.

50 feet=50x3.28=164 meters
300/164=1.8 Mhz which is in medium wave band

12 feet=41 meters
300/42=7.31

6 feet=19.68 meters
300/19.68=15.24 Mhz

While it isn't necessary to have an exact match, down to the millimeter,
getting the length nearly correct is important, because of the signal
strength losses mentioned in the previous post. This is why a longwire is
very useful for very low frequencies. At higher frequencies you get more
noise than signal.

If you try to use a high power transmitter with an antenna badly matched for
the band on which you are transmitting, most of your energy will simply
comes crashing back at your trasmitter and burn up your circuitry s.

Some lucky individuals intersted in very low frequency phenomena have the
space to run wires miles in length, and need special arrangements to
accommodate the incredible voltages generated. Many very strange natural
signals lurk on frequencies that would be voice frequencies if they were
sound, and are very strange indeed.
http://www.auroralchorus.com/wr3gde.htm
He has some interesting recordings at another link you can find on that
site. HTH V

HTH V.

All life all holiness come from you O Lord

"Rikk" wrote in message
...
Hi
I live in a rural area. nearest city is 6 miles
thanks
Rikk



wrote in message
ups.com...

Rikk wrote:
Hi
I am wondering if I have my longwire set correctly, maybe you could
advise
please.
At the moment I have a sloping long-wire of about 50 foot, going from
the
top of a mast on my house about 35 foot tall to the top of a washing
line
post about 12 foot tall. I have connected the lonwire to my radio by
means
of CB-coax, what I have done is to attach the centre core of the coax to
the
longwire and I have cut the outer sheath on the coax near to the ground
and
connected an earhtwire that is soldered to a cold water main supply pipe
as
an earth.
Only the centre wire on the coax is connected to the actual longwire.

Is there a way I could do better.

I am thinking about getting an active antenna, the Sony AN-1

Would this work better for me or is there a better alternative
available.
I am running an Icom R72
thanks
Rikk

This looks like a good design.

An AN-LP1 wil not do much compared to your current rig.

What are the RF conditions like ; is it a " radio Quiet / Electronics
Quiet"rural area
or are ou in the midst of an urban area..