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Author Topic: MW antenna ideas  (Read 10397 times)

Offline Dxer92

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MW antenna ideas
« on: December 14, 2015, 2221 UTC »
Hey everyone, I get absolute terrible reception on my 10/11 meter antenna (Antron 99) but only on the lower bands in which i know why my antenna is not fitted for these frequencies. But I also get a terrible noise and it does sound like Power Line Noise how do I reduce that noise? (Yes my Radio and Antenna is grounded.) Also, what kind of home brew simple MW antennas can i make to get better reception on the MW band? Yes, I will even consider buying one if there are any.

The radio that i'm using is a Icom 718, my antenna does pretty good on SWL but i know the MW band isn't going to be that great. If anyone could help that would be great.

Offline Stretchyman

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Re: MW antenna ideas
« Reply #1 on: December 15, 2015, 0728 UTC »
Best is a loop, many designs out there, here's one;

http://www.hard-core-dx.com/nordicdx/antenna/loop/hulaloop.html

Otherwise just use a 'Long Wire' antenna, bit noisy tho'.

Str.
'It's better to give than receive' so why Rx when you can Tx!

                                              ;)

Offline rdla4

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Re: MW antenna ideas
« Reply #2 on: December 18, 2015, 0017 UTC »
Yes, Loops are the way to go on MW. Next in line would be any type of LARGE closed loop antenna. The smaller loops give you some nice directional characteristics and are more immune to noise.
Acworth GA
SDR-IQ/Grundig Satellit 800, Rotatable 15 ft amplified loop antenna

Offline refmo

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Re: MW antenna ideas
« Reply #3 on: December 18, 2015, 0320 UTC »
The above suggestions are all good.  I will add a few more.
You can find more info about these at http://www.ve1zac.com/My%20Receive%20Antenna%20Compendium.htm
or googling any of these can give you several weeks/months of reading material....

If you have the room, a 500' to 800' beverage is hard to beat, they can be unidirectional, bidirectional, reversible and can be electrically rotated a few degrees, but not rotatable like a magnetic loop.

Terminated Vertical Delta Loop and the various mutations (K9AY, pennant, Kaz, DKaz, SuperKaz).  These are terminated with a resistor, giving a very nice directional pattern, and if you don't have room for a beverage, these give the best bang for the buck.

A pair of short phased verticals. [I have not tried these YET]

A BOG (beverage on ground) or LOG (loop on ground).  [very simple and not bad performance]

For any of these antennas, it is best to locate them away from your house to minimize noise getting into the antenna system.  I recommend a choke balun near the antenna to keep noise from traveling out to the antenna on your coaxial cable.

Your Antron99 should give decent reception on the MW bands if you have a pre-amp.
Maybe you have a balun in line that does not pass MW signals through it, or maybe a bad connector or cable. 
Northeast Kentucky
Please eQSL to refmo[at]outlook[dot]com
Radios: Afedri AFE822x, Airspy HF+, RX-888, RSPdx, Tecsun PL880
Antennas: 700' Loop Skywire, Wellbrook ALA1530LN Loop, 400' Beverage, 34' Vertical, low dipoles on upper bands.

Offline Oliver

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Re: MW antenna ideas
« Reply #4 on: December 18, 2015, 0811 UTC »
Dxer92,
a nice overview can also be found here:

http://www.n4lcd.com/wireantennas/
RX: Elad FDM-S2, Grundig Satellit 700
Ant.: HDLA 3 (Active Loop)@315°, EWE @270°, ALA 100LN, MiniWhip
QTH: JO31 (Germany)

Please send eqsl to: oliverinusa[at]yahoo.de

Offline Pigmeat

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Re: MW antenna ideas
« Reply #5 on: December 22, 2015, 0059 UTC »
I've used both BOG's and LOG's. I prefer BOG's as I find LOG's need a bit of amplification.

The first loop I built was the Radio Nederlands 1 meter MW Loop. It's easy to adapt to a PVC frame and works well. The old 365 pF variable caps the thing uses are getting hard to find but Antique Electronic Supply still sells them. You can screw around with the turns and get them to work up to the funny band, but it's a trial and error thing.

The best tropical band dx I ever got was with one of the modified versions, Bangla Betar over the pole on 60 meters with a clear id just after sunrise one spring morning. It was killer on the New Guinea stations on 90 meters, too.

A rotten cat took it out one day. Both loop and the cat are long gone, but I still miss that loop. Come to think of it that cat also took out an old Hallicrafters SX-120. Too bad it didn't take the cat with it.


Offline jFarley

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Re: MW antenna ideas
« Reply #6 on: December 22, 2015, 0139 UTC »
Joe Farley, Near Chicago
SDR-IQ / R8 / R7
Remote Resonant Loops for HF and LF / ALA 1530
Active 60" Whip / PA0RDT
QSLS appreciated to:    jfarley44@att.net

Offline Pigmeat

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Re: MW antenna ideas
« Reply #7 on: December 22, 2015, 0448 UTC »
That's about 3 bucks cheaper than AES. Nice find, Joe. Thanks!

Offline jFarley

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Re: MW antenna ideas
« Reply #8 on: December 22, 2015, 1311 UTC »
Thanks, PM.  I buy all my caps there; they are friendly and quick delivery.  The caps are good quality, and I believe they are made by Oren Elliot.
Joe Farley, Near Chicago
SDR-IQ / R8 / R7
Remote Resonant Loops for HF and LF / ALA 1530
Active 60" Whip / PA0RDT
QSLS appreciated to:    jfarley44@att.net

Offline RobRich

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Re: MW antenna ideas
« Reply #9 on: December 28, 2015, 1012 UTC »
If your radio is decently grounded, try using only the center conductor from the A99 coaxial feedline. Simply unscrew the PL-259 at the radio, and slide it out just enough to disconnect the outer shell of the connector.

Actual technical aspects aside, you now have a 18' vertical "longwire" instead of a tuned 11m vertical end-fed. YMMV on noise ingress, as the coaxial feedline is no longer acting as shielded coax.

Antenna aside, does the 718 attenuate the MW BCB band? Some HF rigs do, thus potentially needing a mod and/or additional pre-amplification.

I am not really into MW BCB listening, but even my lowly 9' ground-mounted vertical in the backyard can receive lots of stations when used with a ~20dB preamp. It has a mere four 9' ground radials and fed with RG-6QS. Feedline loss can be rather trivial for reception at MW, so the preamp is inside. Techically, I am not going go call it an active e-field/voltage probe antenna, but some perhaps would at such low frequencies when using a preamp. Anyway....
« Last Edit: December 28, 2015, 1015 UTC by RobRich »
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Airspy HF+ Discovery | KiwiSDR 2 | 2x Msi2500 Msi001 | 2x RTL-SDR V3 + NE602 | 2x RTL-SDR V4
148' Loop-on-Ground | 31' Vertical | 18' End-Fed Vertical | 9' NCPL | PA0NHC MiniWhip

Offline Dxer92

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Re: MW antenna ideas
« Reply #10 on: January 04, 2016, 2123 UTC »
Yeah actually the Icom 718 does have a built in Pre Amp, I'll have to try the just connector on the coax I never thought of that. And I'll check out the other loops too, thanks guys for your help!!

Offline Dxer92

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Re: MW antenna ideas
« Reply #11 on: January 04, 2016, 2125 UTC »
And forgot to add in, my radio is grounded pretty well.

Offline Dxer92

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Re: MW antenna ideas
« Reply #12 on: January 04, 2016, 2127 UTC »
And yes my radio does ATT on AM!! Why will that help with noise and reception?

Offline Stretchyman

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Re: MW antenna ideas
« Reply #13 on: January 05, 2016, 0718 UTC »
Stops the front end overloading!
'It's better to give than receive' so why Rx when you can Tx!

                                              ;)

Offline Dxer92

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Re: MW antenna ideas
« Reply #14 on: January 05, 2016, 1639 UTC »
Yeah for some reason I can't get the screw part of the coax off to use just the middle conductor for the radio. That's what I get for buying RadioShack coax.