This thread is great - like a lot of others I am struggling with the "One Antenna to rule them all" solution.

I have looked at building or buying a tuner - one thing I like about my SX-110 is that the antenna tuner makes a HUGE difference when I switch bands. I am thinking I would like one I use in general but I don't wanna build something that looks like a Gilligans Island device nor shell out $250 for one.

Is there a good and simple design for a antenna balancer that sits between the set and the wire antenna? I see a few designs but they look like for transmission. I am strictly receive on my listening sets and just want something like my SX-110 has for all of my sets.

Any ideas??

[quote="mrrstrat"]This thread is great - like a lot of others I am struggling with the "One Antenna to rule them all" solution.

I have looked at building or buying a tuner - one thing I like about my SX-110 is that the antenna tuner makes a HUGE difference when I switch bands. I am thinking I would like one I use in general but I don't wanna build something that looks like a Gilligans Island device nor shell out $250 for one.

Is there a good and simple design for a antenna balancer that sits between the set and the wire antenna? I see a few designs but they look like for transmission. I am strictly receive on my listening sets and just want something like my SX-110 has for all of my sets.

Any ideas??/quote]
MFJ 956 antenna tuner is about $80 new. $40 used. Covers below AM broadcast to 30mHz.

Here are some photos of my shortwave wooden standoff posts. Like I said in my other post the SWL antenna is 100 foot long wire that goes in a dog leg shape out the back yard. I mounted some bird houses on the wooden post to spruce them up and so I don't get the NOTICE from any neighbours. Unfortunately my neighbourhood has a lot of rats (the two legged kind) . All lead in wire and coax is fasten to the corner of the house under the eves. This is ideal because I can use short coax runs of 8 feet into the shack window which is right there, very low loss. Also note big brother is watching (camera) so watch out lol.

Skippy

For BCB reception, a Ferrite antenna and a Tecsun loop.

If you see one for $40 please 911 message me

I do not have luck finding them.

https://www.ebay.com/i/172036267581?chn ... 1&mkcid=28

A ham radio transmitting tuner also tunes the antenna of the receiver. One of these little QRP tuners should work fine for what you want. You could add some turns to the toroid to go below 1 MHz for BCB reception.

As a fan of resonant antennas, I have retired my old MFJ tuners from service. I presume others have done the same. So finding a used one for a few bucks at a swap meet (if we ever have them again) should be easy enough.

There are also ham radio swap meets on the air. If you don't have a license you can still listen and write down the phone numbers of interest.

Here in California there is a swap meet on about 7240 kHz on Saturdays and Sundays at 1 PM local time. There are, I am sure, many others in different parts of the world. I would generally avoid the auction sites or the online classifieds, as those are populated by sellers with inflated ideas of the value of their stuff.

Once you contact someone you can emphasize your situation and perhaps negotiate a better price. I like to use the line 'do you want to get rid of this or not?'.

Post a wanted ad at QTH.com

This is a lot harder than I thought it would be. A lot of choices out there and the photos are very helpful.

Great information, everyone!

What kind of antenna you choose depends a lot on your location. If you are out in the rolling countryside, a length of wire from the radio’s antenna terminal to a medium height tree branch would perform well. If you are on a city lot, or surrounded by suburban neighbors noise sources, you might get better results from a well-grounded, coax fed antenna placed high and away from power lines, other houses, buildings, etc.

If you have 1940s receivers, I always wanted to try a doublet fed with what they called a “ twisted pair” feed line. Apparently it was a very popular type of radio antenna of the time for receiving sets, and seems to have been of a pair of insulated wires twisted together.

Also if anyone is looking to for SWL long wire kits check Frank (wdx2radio) out on the Bay. His kits are very strong, My Night Star 100 foot has gone through several Canadian ice storms with no breaks.

Skippy

What is the proper way to feed a coax line to a long wire antenna and them to a boat anchor-type set?

You would use a balun on each end of the coax to match impedance. I tried this method and it has performed less than stellar. Search the archives and you will get a lot of info on what others have done in this regard.

You could try it similar to a “zepp” antenna using coax instead of ladder line. I have soldered the coax center conductor to a random length antenna wire and left the shield disconnected at the top, but grounded the shield at the bottom (radio end). It’s not “proper” or perfect but it worked better than i expected.

In this case, the objective is to get the antenna part of the system out to a location where there’s less noise. The coax is simply a way to get it there.

One other option is a trapped doublet fed with 72 ohm coax. I used to see ads for an SWL all band antenna of this design in the 60s that used several traps to cover 1-30 MHz.

I simply used the center conductor of RG-59 Coax connected to the outdoor long wire, and then to a switch inside which connects to radios in other rooms. I tried grounding the Coax's outer braid, but it made no difference.

Can't keep a real ham down! Nice!



One of the net controls for that net lives close to me, KB6LZW. We call him the "lazy zipper whipper". You can hear that net all up and down the west coast.

I think I'll give it a listen this weekend!

Here at KA3JRT, the current antenna is a G5RV configured as an inverted V. I have others to put up, as I get the time; the plans are for a long-wire and a 10 meter dipole, and eventually a tower and beam.

Hey just curious is it a plus or minus to have a cell tower 250 yards away from your home base?

It would be a plus if the tower owner lets you attach a longwire antenna to it. It is a minus if it creates strong interference due to intermods between the carriers. I had that problem when early cell-phone antennas sprang up within 600' from my house causing a loud "hiss" in various portions of shortwave bands. But that problem has been mostly solved due to FCC regulations.

The main objective of any receiving antenna is to get it away from sources of interference as far as possible.

I use an abandoned telephone pole on my property with a 200' wire run out to a tree. The lead-in runs down the side of the pole and suspended inside 50' of buried 3" PVC pipe to the house.

Dave