Best MWDX antenna?

[RobRich]

Might have found the 31' vertical antenna issue without much effort. Went outside to lay the fiberglass vertical section on the ground for the coming tropical storm. A short jumper wire from the antenna wire to the unun pulled rather easy from its junction. So hopefully an easy fix.

BTW, I assume we have turned this in a chat thread by now.

[~SIGINT~]

Have to love those easy fixes. Chat thread, yup, but with 4,094 reads and no complaints one has to believe there is some degree of experience being gained by some of those readers. It is a hobby after all, one which I have been involved with both personally and professionally for over 40 years --- and as technology changes I am still learning. We have not heard from "alpard" for a little while. I see that his last active date was 2021-05-30.

[RobRich]

The S9v31 is back vertical. Stripped the antenna wire and the jumper to the unun. Twisted the two together. Added a couple of wraps of electrical tape. It is now working. :yay:

I need to properly solder and heat shrink the connection, but it was getting dark outside. Maybe over the weekend.

Also have most of the coax to the two active miniwhips lawn stapled down.

[RobRich]

I have been doing SSTV captures on 20m in recent days, so I am thinking about deploying my S9v18 that has been collecting dust in storage.

Then again a 20m dipole is not exactly a large antenna to deploy, either.

Decisions.... ;)

[~SIGINT~]

Ha ha ... conditions have been excellent late at night for the past week or so, and in a complete inverse of the regular bands. 14 ~  18 MHz was hot well after 03:00 UTC. Even WWV at 15 MHz was a +20 at 03:00. 3 ~ 6 MHz was dead. A complete inverse. No complaints, it made for some nice high frequency South America and European DX. Even my less than effective mini-whip was hot.

[RobRich]

Right there with ya' on mid- to upper-HF conditions on recent nights. European amateurs on 20m. Asian stations on the 16m band. 11m CB openings, too.

That said, I also still have lots of lower HF broadcast activity, but admittedly much of that is typical regional stuff for me anyway.

[Brian]

I have a low inverted L MW transmit aerial here which I've being useing for reception recently. Just inductively coupled to a small transistor radio. Nothing fancy. Works great!

[RobRich]

When too much gain presents an issue on MW. Added a SMA 20dB attenuator between the RTL-SDR V3 and NE602 upconverter. It was a quick fix, so I might play with the dB value later.

RTL-SDR V3 + NE602 Upconverter:

https://imgur.com/a/UOA5a5P

RTL-SDR V3 + NE602 Upconverter + 20dB Attenuator:

https://imgur.com/a/cz6luBF

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20dB helps reigns in MW and lower, but 10dB or perhaps no attenuator seems a little better on HF. I suspect adding an attenuator could be helping smooth the impedance match, too.

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No attenuator is acceptable enough on HF for casual listening IMO. Whatever.

Now to get back to my Airspy HF+ Discovery. ;)

[RobRich]

I might move one of the active whips. It have not done a full HF scan, but its noise level on upper HF appears a few dB higher than another one located like 30'-40' away. Another example of positional effects on an e-field antenna.


Then again, the one with higher upper-HF noise has a better noise profile on 20m. Linearity? What linearity? ;)


Dropping down to ~40m seems to be about the same so far.

Naturally, storms are rolling now into the local area.

[~SIGINT~]

I am going to add a counterpoise to one of mine and see what happens. I got a small o-ring clamp at the hardware store this past weekend. I am just going to tighten the clamp and the counterpoise wire to the BNC.

[RobRich]

Take care with placement. AFAIK, counterpoise radials can seriously skew an e-field vertical unless the radials are symmetrically well balanced.

I am considering moving my second active miniwhip closer to the first, then split their feeds to different radio locations in the house. Thankfully I am not dealing with much local RFI, and I can play around with directional phasing later. Moving it also gets the mast out of the edge of my 31' vertical radial field.

About my S9v18 vertical collecting dust, I have ordered an unity voltage gain preamp to eventually deploy it. The circuit is based upon the AD8055 preamp design by W1FV.

http://lists.contesting.com/archives//html/topband/2018-11/msg00029.html

https://www.ebay.com/itm/YCCC-Hi-Z-preamplifier-for-experimenters-and-RX-antenna-system/203459071504

[RobRich]

I have a low inverted L MW transmit aerial here which I've being useing for reception recently. Just inductively coupled to a small transistor radio. Nothing fancy. Works great!

Good stuff. Curious, are you inductively coupling with a fixed loop, tuned loop, etc.?

I sometimes plug one my outdoor antennas into a Tecsun AN-200 tuned loop, which in turn is inductively coupled to a portable radio. Naturally the AN-200 losses much circuit Q that way, but there is still enough for a little selectivity.

[Brian]

I have a low inverted L MW transmit aerial here which I've being useing for reception recently. Just inductively coupled to a small transistor radio. Nothing fancy. Works great!

Good stuff. Curious, are you inductively coupling with a fixed loop, tuned loop, etc.?

I sometimes plug one my outdoor antennas into a Tecsun AN-200 tuned loop, which in turn is inductively coupled to a portable radio. Naturally the AN-200 losses much circuit Q that way, but there is still enough for a little selectivity.

The end of the wire aerial goers into a tuning unit. I just place the radio as close to the wire as I can. No tuning. It pulls in a low power pirate that is about 65 miles from me quite well.
If I could figure out how to post a video of it, I would.

[RobRich]

K. About vids, you would need to upload them to a host like YouTube or similar, then link them.

[RobRich]

Oh yeah, thinking about antennas. I finally broke down and ordered a remote receiving antenna switch. I am getting tired of managing multiple coax runs.

It an 8-port model with switching control via WiFi. Could be awhile before arriving, though, as it is coming from Russia.

Depending upon network security, I am thinking it might end up on its own isolated WiFi network.