| General > General Technical Chat |
| Broadcast/Shortwave Aerials? Confusion... |
| (1/4) > >> |
| GlennSprigg:
I'm getting back into rebuilding a lot of vintage valve radios, and that's not the problem. However, although I DO research it, I get lots of conflicting info about general/basic Aerial use! :( Most of my old vintage receivers have an Aerial & Ground terminal, and ONE of them even has additional terminals for a 'Di-Pole' !! I'm not into the Ham bands as such, but mainly the Broadcast band, various SW bands, & LW. A FEW of them, (very few!), have/use internal ferrite rods/coils in the initial aerial circuitry, which are used in just 'some' bands, and also require physical orientation of the 'radio' to work best. Can someone guide me to (or explain!) what is basically required in a simplistic manner, to build an aerial system(s) in a typical 'country' environment, say 180-kms from a major city?? And does the ubiquitous 'Long-Wire' generally suffice?? or are design considerations preferred ;D |
| babysitter:
Hook up the wire you easily find, at the place that you have, up and behind the radio set. Connect earth if available, or any bigger metal structure. |
| rdl:
Ground for a radio antenna really means ground, something like copper pipe hammered several feet into the ground. For the antenna, use the longest wire possible unless you have room for an actual antenna which would be sized according to the signals you want to receive. General suggestion here: anybody with the slightest interest in radio should get a copy of the ARRL Handbook. It doesn't need to be the latest edition, a cheap, used copy is fine. |
| vwestlife:
The internal (or sometimes external) coil antenna is for the mediumwave (AM) and longwave bands, approx. 150 to 2000 kHz, and is directional -- rotate it (or the entire radio, if it's internal) for best reception. If your radio has a whip antenna, it does not need to be extended when listening to LW or MW/AM -- in fact, having it extended might actually cause interference on a cheaper single-conversion receiver. An external antenna for these bands should be as long as possible and ideally located outdoors, along with a good earth ground connection, if your radio has a terminal for it. Shortwave (2 - 30 MHz) uses the radio's whip antenna, if it has one, or an external antenna, usually around 20 to 50 feet in length. A dipole antenna connection would be for FM (88-108 MHz). If you don't have a dipole, just connect a single piece of wire to one of the terminals, usually around 3 to 4 feet in length. |
| VK3DRB:
If you are out in the country and want to get DX stations (distance), consider building an external loop antenna. By turning the loop, these are quite directional and you can null stations in certain directions and get extra gain in other directions. They need not be large. I built one about 30 years ago using several turns of wire on a cross frame and added a tuning capacitor to from an LC circuit. The length of each side was about 1.5m. It worked a treat. I worked a lot of AM DX and could pick up AM radio station 2CA in Canberra from as far away as Wangaratta night or day via ground path. Alternatively, consider one of these: www.amradioantennas.com. They work exceedingly well. They work by inductive coupling to your radio antenna. You can have a crap antenna in your radio, but this is a simple and easy-to-install game changer. |
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