Technical Topics > Equipment
Equipent: A SW antenna
Zoidberg:
--- Quote from: Dxer92 on August 31, 2011, 1705 UTC ---Does anyone know any kind of SW antenna that will work for my SW radio. I have a Grundig S350DL (No SSB) I have been trying to receive Pirate broadcasts here in North America but still no luck. I hooked up a CB antenna (The Antron 99) but I am not sure if a CB antenna will work for the SW bands. Can anyone recommend any SW antenna's i can buy or build to improve reception so I can receive these Pirate broadcasts.
--- End quote ---
The main challenge now is propagation, which ranges from poor to erratic. Takes patience and persistence to snag any real DX signals from stations using 100 watts or less. Most of the 40m hams I'm hearing this year are local to my state or regional in adjacent states, possibly using NVIS antennas. I don't think I've heard a true DX 40m ham since 2010. From 2007-early 2010, I routinely heard 40m hams from Australia, NZ, Japan, etc.
When conditions are good, especially at morning and evening gray line, I can hear pirates on a small barefoot portable outdoors - no external antenna needed. A few days ago I heard Captain Morgan while I was walking around the block, away from suburban RFI, carrying a small portable with just the telescoping whip. But I couldn't hear him at home because my antenna is too close to surrounding apartment complexes - a fog of white noise RFI tends to swamp weaker signals.
A CB antenna can actually work pretty well. A DXer in France, Marcel, has logged many N. American pirates using a CB antenna. But if I'm recalling correctly he's in fairly quiet residential area and the CB antenna is mounted on his roof.
You might try a tuner with the CB. It'll probably work fairly well down to 10 MHz without a tuner, but below that it might be nearly deaf. I have the opposite problem with a homebrewed indoor magnetic loop. It's fine up to 10 MHz, but deaf above that unless I run it through an amplifier with a tuner - then it's fairly good up to 20m.
If you attach some wire it's probably best to keep it to around 20'-40'. As other folks noted, portables tend to overload with too much wire. When I attach 20'-40' random wire to my Sony ICF-2010, I have to turn the RF gain way down to avoid overload - mostly from WBAP on 820. But I'll also hear other local MW flamethrowers and used to hear WYFR breaking through when the Sony was tuned to the usual 6925-6955 kHz zone.
Dxer92:
I have a 60ft longwire antenna on a branch. It seems to be working ok i guess. The longwire is NOT straight though. Tonight at 0:50 UTC I received a station on 1356 or it was 1357 somewhere around there and they were speaking Spanish. Funny thing is that I am no where near a station that operates on that frequency. Maybe someone can tell me where that station is or what it is. If so thank you very much. But everyone thank you for all your help i appreciate it.
HTP:
--- Quote from: Dxer92 on September 01, 2011, 0052 UTC ---I have a 60ft longwire antenna on a branch. It seems to be working ok i guess. The longwire is NOT straight though. Tonight at 0:50 UTC I received a station on 1356 or it was 1357 somewhere around there and they were speaking Spanish. Funny thing is that I am no where near a station that operates on that frequency. Maybe someone can tell me where that station is or what it is. If so thank you very much. But everyone thank you for all your help i appreciate it.
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Even though a station is broadcasting in a different language, it can still be coming from the US or Canada. A site I use to find out what I'm listening to is this one below.
http://www.short-wave.info/index.php?station=&language=English&now=02&now2=13&GMT=true&submit=GO
It will show you what is on at the time you use it. Stations active at that time will be highlighted in red. Many stations use the same frequencies as others, so it depends on the time of the day to really track down who is using what, when and where.
Pigmeat:
St.Pierre & Milqueon,a pair of French islands off the coast of Newfoundland is on 1375. If you drop 9 khz down from there,Eastern Hemisphere MW station spacing,you get 1357. You may have had a European station if you're near the East coast.
Your other shot mid-spacing,could be a S.American MW station. A number of those operate whereever the guys running the station can get the transmitter to sit steady on a frequency.
The Hokie:
The last time I was at my folks' place, I saw that my dad had bought a S350DL. As a shortwave receiver, I was definitely less than impressed - the tuning knob felt incredibly flimsy, the tuning drove me insane if I was trying to park on a specific frequency, and no SSB as mentioned. Anything short of the BBC and the domestic preachers wasn't going to happen.
I don't know if this is the same radio as the YB400, but if it is, it's a hell of a deal for under $100:
http://www.rffun.com/catalog/portable/4000.html
My first SW radio was the YB400, and although it didn't have a tuning knob or selectable USB/LSB, I'd take it over the S350DL any day.
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