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antenna for fm and sw dx eton g3

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acl12:
Hi. I live in a block of flats in England and want to significantly increase my potential for dxing using the eton g3. I cant have outside antennas other than maybe hanging an aerial off my balcony during summer months. What sort of antenna would fit this model and would one antenna serve both sw and Dx purposes. Thanks.

mondomusique:
I would just listen on headphones at night using the built in whip antenna until you know what you can receive.  The G3 should be good as-is for lots of interesting reception, as lots of shortwave broadcasters aim their antennas toward Europe.  Other than that, I would do a lot of reading about equipment and propagation, World Radio TV Handbook (WRTH) from the library would be a good place to start.

If you really want to try an add-on antenna, a slinky antenna located in your flat might work okay with your G3, they are not expensive check Ebay.  The best antennas for urban/suburban locations are made by Wellbrook (a UK company) but they cost a fair bit.

acl12:
Thanks. I will check out what I can recieve 1st and then maybe go for the slinky.

Zoidberg:
You can try a simple random wire dangled out a window or off the balcony.  But if your area is like mine - suburban, apartment complexes and private residences and some businesses nearby - you'll eventually tire of the harsh buzzing RFI.  It's practically unavoidable due to street and parking lot lights, businesses with large lighted signs, neighbors with plasma TVs, and being surrounded by hundreds of poorly shielded electronic devices that contribute to a heavy fog of white noise.

So far the best compromise I've found for suburban DXing (or listening to weak local signals) is a small loop.

Take a peek at the cheap, easy to make Villard homebrewed loop:
http://www.hard-core-dx.com/nordicdx/antenna/special/reducin1.html
http://users.erols.com/k3mt/hla/hla.htm

That design is intended to supplement, not replace, the whip on a portable.  If it offers any improvement at all with your radio on medium wave and shortwave, you might then try a more sophisticated homebrewed loop such as the KR1ST:
http://www.kr1st.com/magloop.htm

My own indoor homebrewed loop is similar to the Villard design, only made from coaxial cable looped around a closet door, rather than foil or copper tubing supported on a tripod or other freestanding support.  I used mine for a couple of years as a passive loop with my Palstar R30C, which has high sensitivity so a pre-amp wasn't necessary.   I was generally satisfied with this until local RFI became intolerable.  The large loop didn't have a sharp enough null.

Then I reconfigured it by adding a small pickup loop, also made from ordinary TV coaxial cable.  This helps me null out the worst nearby offenders - flickering parking lot and streetlights.  However the smaller pickup loop necessitated an amplifier.  I already had a cheap amplified antenna that was popular during the 1990s.  It mostly amplified indoor RFI so I rarely used it.  However, I bypassed the high impedance input for the built in whip, and used only the low impedance feed with shielded cable.  Even though it's not a very good quality amp, combined with the reconfigured loop it was a significant improvement over the passive loop.

Keep in mind that you'll probably get better results with a random wire slung outdoors on certain frequencies and at certain times of day or night.  For example, my local RFI has very little effect above 10 MHz.  So I get better reception with random wire strung along my ceiling for listening to broadcasts and hams above 10 MHz.  And local RFI is usually much less intrusive late at night after neighbors are asleep, and early in the morning.  So a bit of random wire is occasionally better than the loop when local RFI isn't a factor.

acl12:
Thanks. This looks like a good option. Everytime I touch my antenna it improves reception so supplementing the whip and hanging the loop outside my window should be worthwhile. Will this work for fm dxing as well.

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