Building a quick Shortwave Antenna using Electrical Fencing parts
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- Опубликовано: 22 сен 2016
- Put together a quick shortwave antenna using just a few pieces of electrical fencing supplies. Also, why every house should have an emergency way of listening to the outside world.
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This is funny. When I was about 7 years old a friend of my dad gave me a Zenth Royal transoceanic short wave. The antenna was broken, I had no idea what shortwave was anyway. But, he told me to attach a wire and it would work. Being a farm boy, I was sitting under the barn shed when I got the idea to hook it up to the old hog fence we no longer used. That radio jump to life, the first broadcast on shortwave I heard was Radio Free Europe Broadcasting Petula Clark singing "Downtown" That was in 1964. Shortwave has been my hobby since. Thanks for the video.
That was a good old radio.....KC0ZQB said that
@@graplingurty Yes it was a good radio and I used that radio up until late 90s. I finally gave it to a young man who was interested in shortwave radio. He still has that radio and said it kicked started his hobby in radio.. 73s Brian
Thats So Cool Man.
Im 30 Years Old And Now Im getting Into radios ANd Stuff..
Shortwave reception began my career as well as becoming a ham operator. The only receivers I had were those I built myself though.
Signal Hunter, I love stories like yours. Some of my fondest memories are listening to a Motorola flip clock radio I got for my 13th birthday. I added 3 feet of wire to the antenna and was picking up WLS and others at night very clearly. Blew my mind that I was in Alabama and they were in St Louis, Kansas City or Chicago.
My first experience with radio was when my brother bought a crystal radio kit that we built. we ran a wire out the window and fastened it to a telephone pole near the back yard an then tuned in our first broadcast station. I've loved crystal radios ever since.
Same here, I realize this post is a year old but I just had to say I got my start in radio when I was 10 in 1959 with a crystal radio. 🖐🏼🎙73's kd9oam
Me, too. Crystal radio.
Great video, I usually put a pulley at the tree end of a long wire and hang a piece of firewood from the end of the rope holding the antenna. If the tree sways in the wind, or ice freezes on the wire, the firewood adjusts the slack by moving up or down and keeps it taught. And if your long wire is as long as some i have made in the past, you can do this in connected runs or stages with several counter weights and pulleys.. excellent radio.
Wouldn't a spring work as well?
@@Kinann I would think a spring or a bungee cord would be as good as or better than a dead weight.
As another commenter mentioned, you don't need height for a receive antenna. My shortwave antenna is 500 feet insulated wire laid directly on the ground in a big square loop. I used a weed whacker to almost scalp the grass where the wire was going, then used wire spikes to hold it down. About a month later, the grass has grown back and you can mow like normal and never hit the wire. It's crazy how good the reception is.
A screen door spring in the far end of the longwave antenna will keep the wire from pulling out in high winds. Also, aluminum and copper are dissimilar metals meaning the connection between the two will corrode.
Keep your wire-joints well waterproofed. Like the man says, copper + aluminium + sweat from your hands = battery = corrosion. Check it all every season, leave enough spare wire to re-terminate as necessary.
Not to mention the generation of noise, during the dissimilar metal electrolysis that will begin !
The interaction between the different types of metal used in those wires can be stopped by using a compound called Penetrox A. Put a small amount of the compound on the wires and then twist together and then put a wire nut on the connection. Penetrox A stops electrolysis, water proofs and increases electrical conductivity. Penetrox A is specifically made for use on copper to aluminum connections but you can use it to water proof and increase electrical contact in aluminum to aluminum, copper to copper and I have used it with great success on stainless steel to copper and aluminum connections. I have 3 antennas that have Penetrox A used on them and have been up in New England weather for at least 10 years with no degradation in these connections.
Also, the use of screen door spring or even a bungee cord at the ends of a wire antenna will help keep the antenna up during inclement weather and prevent damage to the houses.
73, de N1WOM
Ooh, that's a nice tree. I'd throw a weighted line up into it and get the aerial really high up.
PS. please don't forget to use lightning diverters or disconnect the antenna from the radio if there is an electrical storm. I do both...Happy listening. 73's
I've used rain gutters , telephone wire, electric fence wire , beer cans , heat/ac air ducts , and chicken wire for antennas .
1620 AM RADIO RED HORSE RADIO which one worked the best, would u have to say?
I did this when I was about 12-13 In east-central Connecticut.
My grandfather gave me an old 1926 Motorola console with a multiband radio.
At night I could tune in the Yankees games broadcast out of Kansas City when they
didn't rebroadcast on the east coast in the 60's. Amazing what a 50' wire will get you.
I see InfoWars are keeping keeping the medium alive, lol.
Great setup, bud
Nice set up.
I’m sure your nighttime reception is great.
The further your away from other electrical noise the better it gets.
73
wd4dda
For Amateur Radio I've been using Aluminium Electric fence wire for Dipoles and End fed Antennas. As a General Rule Frequencies above 10mhz work really well during the day, Frequencies below work better at night. The closer the lenght of the wire matches the band the more optimized the reception. Good video! 73 Ne5B
Hell when I'm at my cabin in Crossville TN I live like it's 1870. I have no power up there anywhere on my 212 acres except for a generator I made to use on Little Piney stream and some solar panels. Well for water and that's about it. It's so peaceful there it's nice to get away from all the stress human kind has brought on itself.
Your like look at my antenna, I’m like man your property is gorgeous!! Many more happy days🤞🍻
W7CW I had a full 1/4 wave vertical in Wyoming. I used this technique every winter for a temporary install using neighboring properties. Great idea. I finally built my own transformers to reverse the receiving direction on the beverages and kept it on my own property.
I really enjoy the narration along with the video.
Subscribed 👍
A big thumbs up the the trusty classic Yaesu FRG-7, random length wire antennas are great for simplicity sake and always have at least one installed at my home, oddly enough when I first saw the video thumbnail I under the impression you had built a "stealth antenna" running the length of your fence line (which would also work) :)
Cool to see you kept your fathers old radio and what a great radio, the classic Yaesu FRG-7.
I may be wrong but i get the feeling when you first connect your long wire antenna the radio is tuned to a frequency of ETR !!!!
Thanks for uploading this video, i listen to ETR on 9400Khz here in Europe.
Thank you for explaining a simple set up for improving swling! 73's Lee.
Thanks so much for stopping by.
Good Idea with this antenna - and a very nice receiver! Thanks for the video..! Greetings from Germany!
You can use a rubber tie down strap to hook the insulators to that will let you take up slack, yet when the wind blows will not cause the wire to break.
You have a great house and land. You Mention who knows what will happen to our society. Look at what is going on now..
Very true. We have to prepare for the bad times and bad people, and push back against them when they come.
A lightning arrester would be very good idea!
Great video. Very simple to understand.
Those antennas work good My mate Dave from over in the Uk. transmitted on a electric fence over on his late Uncles farm just outside of Plymouth. Drove the GPO batty. He and his friend Ray "RUclips channel Ray's Radio Workshop". They used a home brew medium wave broadcast transmitter around 25-30 watts or so. They got out all over Plymouth , Worthy and Orford Village and the surrounding area. This was back in the late sixties when Radio Caroline and the offshore stations were all going full swing. Also in the video the creator mentioned the ground what he forgot to mention and probable was not aware of it and the most important part of the ground is that the ground acts as a counter poise for the antenna system bringing it into balance the same as a dipole antenna. Some people add a resistor or capacitor "I can never remember which" between the ground round and ground wire. Turns it into a Marconi rig antenna.
This is Useful for End Fed long Wire Antenna, for Ham Radio HF, with a MFJ Antenna Turner, this is a Good way to have a HF Ham Radio Antenna, that can even be Use on a HOA Neighborhood House, I do have a Ham Radio Operaters License,
Beautiful home too.
Amazon has a nice little AM/FM/Shortwave radio on sale now for only 35 bucks called the Eton Executive Traveler. It used to be 79 bucks. It has really great reception on all bands unlike most portable radios. Excellent AM reception for such a small radio. Uses 4 AA batteries and will fit in a shirt pocket.
I had a couple of radios in the past and now it's been 20 years and today I am buying a Tecsun H-501 X.
That's a pretty good setup you got there back in the early 2000s I had a wire coming out of my house and going to a couple of trees in different directions and had excellent reception. But I got rid of my place and moved into town for the first time but it's in the mountains and I shouldn't have any problem getting reception but don't have the luxury of all of the property to put wire but I think I shouldn't have any problems with reception.
Love that FRG-7 ! I wish I had kept mine!
3 days of dipole antenna videos. Jackpot!
Your analysis on reasons to keep the antenna as cloaked as possible is spot on. Don't advertise.
Working on tweaking the antenna inside my attic for that exact reason. That and I'm not inspired to get my Benjamin Franklin on in a lightening storm.
Hey 16, thanks so much for the vid! I have been trying to get my shortwave up and running, but the reception has not been great. I have watched vids from guys with tens of thousands of followers and views - but you where the first one that spoke / showed the grounding part of the antenna. That was my problem - THANK YOU !!!
+P.A. Prepper I'm really glad this helped you. It took me a while to understand the importance of a good ground, but once I did, my reception really improved. Thanks!
I have a permanent "stealth" antenna which is installed along a fence line. It starts at one corner, goes up abut 25 feet through a couple trees and then back down to the other corner post. I used polystealth copper-clad steel wire. The far end of the antenna is tensioned by a 12 pound window weight. That way the wire is under constant tension when the trees flex in the wind. The antenna is 85 feet and I have a 45 foot counterpoise running at right angles along the fence. I have an 8 foot driven rod at the feed point.
There should be a pulley to accommodate tree movement.
@@joewoodchuck3824 In fact, I do use a pulley where the rope at the far end of the antenna transitions from horizontal to the vertical run down to the weight. IIRC it is a 25mm marine grade pulley.
@@timothystockman7533 Ah, good.
an old fashioned long wire work good especially if laid on the ground for transmitting and receiving cw on 160 meters I have done it works very well
thky brother. you made it easy. dan t palm springs calif USA
Classic Yaesu FRG-7 radio solid state of course. Watch out lightning on all vacuum tube no semiconductor short wave radio would best to deal with lightning. Any thing solid state short wave radios you must disconnect to protect your radio from lightning damage. Only connect when their are no storms in the area. Fried and repaired 2 shortwave radios from lightning damage. Lightning strikes again on June 2008 fried my router cable modem 2 ethernet cards television set. Today I have 2 spare cable modems a spare VPN router APC power backup system. 2 emergency radios and digital short wave radios of course indoor and outdoor antennas.
Being an Amateur Radio operator, while replacing the electric fence on a 3 acre pasture, I was careful to keep the wire running thru hill and dale, one single wire, no breaks !
As my motivation was my plan to bring my ham gear out to the barn, and give this long continuous wire a go !
After all the meticulous work, ensuring no breaks, no knots, no nothing in the line, instead of quickly bringing the ham gear to the barn, I got busy doing other things, telling myself, that the makeshift antenna I so carefully constructed, would still be there !
All in one long piece !
Or so I thought !
I bet it wasn't a week before a deer, or more, found the grass greener on our side of the fence !
And getting a hoof or two tangled in the electric fence, and tore it to shreds !
Well in my opinion !
In reality, it was nothing we hadn't experienced before, or after, for that matter !
But upon seeing the broken wires, my heart sank, and I knew my experiment with a single 3 acre strand, would never take place !
And it didn't !
Shocking, I know !
'73 😉👍
Excellent video. You showed the ground to the radio, so I'm wondering where exactly you grounded it to? Thank you.
If you enjoy HF radio I would encourage you to look into amateur radio. Many of us got started as short wave listeners.
Hey, great video and thanks a bunch for an easy to understand, yet simple set-up! One quick question for you - I have always been under the impression that you are supposed to ground the radio (as you showed in the video) but to also ground the antenna itself. Does this only pertain to an antenna mounted to a mast/tower and doesn't necessarily apply to long-wire antennas? I'm new to SWL and looking to get a simple outdoor set-up like you have. Any info you might have on the antenna grounding would be great! Thanks again!
+cstrut90 There's a multitude of different scenarios for grounding and it probably comes down to personal preference. I've always done it this way because I've found it gives the best reception. Does it put you at risk for radio damage in the event of a direct lighting strike?, maybe. That's why I always disconnect my antenna when there is severe weather nearby.If you directly ground your antenna, your best reception will go into the ground, unless you use a lightning arrester, which is a good option.I once grounded an antenna directly to the earth, but used an in-line neon tube on the ground wire (heavy duty wire). This made a great lightning arrestor, because under normal conditions the tube is basically empty and no electrical connection is made, until, there is a lightning strike, or even an electrically charged storm, at which point the neon gas becomes charged and all of the excess electricity goes directly into the ground and away from your radio. Plus, during some storms, the neon would actually begin to glow! The hard part is finding a sign company that still works in neon who can make you a straight tube, about 8 inches in length, with a copper wire connection on each end.
It really depends on whether you are using balanced or unbalanced antenna wire. Random long wires like his is "unbalanced " for impedance matching purposes you really should use a balun.. In receive only mode that setup wont hurt the radio, but gain will be attenuated. To use a balun with random length antenna, and coax......one side of the balun will go to ground the other side will go to the wire. IIn some situations It may also be better to use the vertical, ungrounded aluminum gutter pipe also ....as some signals are vertically polarized .
wow thanks for the replies! Im finally in a spot that allows for outdoor antennas, so ill be toying around with it and see what I cant get done! great video!
Is there a certain plane to run the antenna along I.E North- South, East-West to get the best reception. Thank you.
Seems to work for you. In my case I have to keep the antenna wire away from the house to avoid staticy radio interference generated by devices inside the house. I place the wire and ground at some distance from the house and connect to it with cable TV coax through an isolation transformer with a 9:1 impedance ratio. The transformer does 2 things: 1) it keeps the interference generated inside the house that travels down the coax from coupling into the antenna wire, and 2) the impedance transformation increases the efficiency of the energy transfer from the antenna wire to the coax TV cable. For me, this was a dramatic improvement over just running the wire straight into the radio.
I did similar years ago and lightning struck the wire and ruined everything electrical in the house. welded the pots on my stereo, blew rotary switches across the room.
Bad installation.
No lightning protection, eh?
M & H Homestead. I am here for you & fam if blank hits the fan. I have a eton elite executive now. Working on an antenna. God said, in the end we win brother. Thanks for helping US communicate. :-)
Keep in mind for receiving antennas, you do not need height. Height of the antenna is only necessary for transmitting antennas. My shortwave wire antenna is just 1' off the ground attached to the wooden fence running around my property. Even if anyone saw it, they would never think it was an antenna and wouldnt give it a second thought.
Also, DO NOT use aluminum wire for your ground. In the event of a lightning strike that will melt immediately and will not route the lightning away from your house and radio. Use the thickest solid copper wire that you can, and drive a ground rod 8' deep into the ground. That will protect your radio and house from lightning.
I have the old Kenwood R-1000 so I know they are a good radio
THANK YOU
Your thinking is right on. Insurance!
Question for all ... if I use clothesline as antenna, is it a good idea? Thanks
How do you ground the portable radios that don’t have a place for a ground attachment?
Hi thanks for posting, i have always been interested in radio, and learned a good deal from you all ready, on that grounding rod i read it should be deep enough to be in moist soil.
Len Hart That's right, my setup was a quick and simple one, so I used a more shallow rod, but it is in moist soil. Eventually I will replace it with a long copper grounding rod, but probably in the same place.
Milk and Honey homestead, my grandmother gave me a book called back to basics, readers digest, if you can get one there are all kinds of "early American skills" in it.
+Signal Hunter That's great!, thank you for your comment. It's amazing how much can be accomplished with what is now considered "low tech". One day when the internet crashes, low tech may save our lives.
Yeah....but its far more likely that it will be VHF and UHF radio and its far more likely to be high tech on the radios such as packet radio,aprs, dstar, vhf repeaters etc. I recommend you expand your horizons and study for your technician class ham radio license.
"6020" on the FRG-7 cabinet... one of Radio Australia's frequencies to the southwest Pacific???
Most ham type receivers can be powered by 12 battery... car, lawn tractor, etc. I keep a big AGM (gel) car battery with Battery Tender to power my ham gear if the grid power is out. Ditto most receivers, such as the very popular Icom R75. In fact, I have made up a piece of plywood with D-Cell battery holders wired up with 9 D-cells in series (13.5 volts) to power it if ever necessary. D's will give many hours of operation with this radio.
Awesome Video thanks for putting the work to show us that! You have answered all my questions in one video Ive been looking around all day for these answers. Funny, maybe ironic, to hear Alex Jones and info wars when you turn the radio on at night . Cheers!
By the way, that last transmission was Canadian Military, dont know what they were saying but they were naming off a few Air Force bases. Does anyone know what it was?
Glad to hear it! Thanks for watching!
Hope you & the family are well during these crazy times.
If you have time you might want to do a follow up on your antenna installation. Also any new radio equipment you have installed.
Did you ever consider getting your amateur radio license?
I purchased an SDRplay, looks like a small black box with free software download.
Great radio for SWL and great band coverage.
Anyway 73 from Central MS.
wd4dda
I have considered it many times. I got to the point where I was making a great score on the online test, but never took it formally, something always comes up. I actually bought a Uniden SDS-100 last year, and a new Diamond discone antenna, just in time for my local PD to go encrypted! I plan on doing another video soon. Thanks for watching!
Milk and Honey Homestead
Got that same discone antenna myself and it works great.
Tell you what, if you get your Tech license I have an old two meter radio that I’ll send it to you, no charge.
The radio is in good condition that you can use in the truck or house.
Anyway just think about it.
Hope you and the family stay well.
73
Preston
@@prestonshute7243 Thank you! That's some motivation for me! Hope you and your family are doing well also.
Better start learning Morse code. Cause if all falls down. The best way to get information out with the least amouth of power that goes the farthest is either digital psk31 ore Morse code.
Day time is 14mhz and above, night time is below this.
Have fun.
Yeah when it all goes south you get on your Ham radio and blast out transmissions.. I don't think many Hams will survive post SHTF due to an inherit lack of common sense.. But I guess we'll see
run line through the insulator and put a weight on it, that will compensate for most changes in length.
With this configuration you actually have no lightning protection at all . You need a gas discharge device and also an outside switch to disconnect the aerial when not in use. My advice is to rethink the situation as your radio can be turned into a block of molten slag the way you are doing it now.
NewHampshireBoy Yes, that's why I unplug my antenna before any bad weather. This was only meant to demonstrate how you can set up a fast shortwave wire with items that are laying around your property, perhaps in an emergency. In the best of conditions and with proper planning, you would assure a permanent grounding setup.
Stop scaremongering sonny.
Disconnecting the antenna line is a good start but that open line in the home will have a massive charge on it should that line or the tree in this demo get hit by lightning. It’s best to have a disconnect outside where you can hook up that line directly to ground. Worked 30 years in the 2way radio market and I have seen what lightning can do especially when someone does something like this. Gas tube discharge units are useless unless you are trying to bleed off low levels of electrical charges. Spark gap discharge systems are good for long wire antennas, one such system that was shown in a ham radio magazine was designed as a twin lead discharge system. It consisted of a copper plate about 3 x 5 inches and two ACCELL Non Resistor spark plugs used in drag racing engines and two anti fouling cups to fit/the spark plugs. They drill 2 holes in the copper plate keeping the distance short between the plugs, insert the plugs through the holes and screw on the anti fouling cups onto the plugs to keep them in place. You would attach this bar directly to the ground rod. Attach the twin lead to the two plugs and continue running the twin lead into the shack. Now for listening only, you do not need to do anything else. BTW seal the end of the anti fouling extenders so no insect’s enter them. However if you are transmitting use an SWR meter and check for occasional spurts of high SWR. This IS AN INDICATION OF ARCING TO GROUND. remove the anti fouling covers and increase the gap on both plugs to prevent arcing at higher transmit powers. Retest and reset if needed. This has worked for me for over 20 years. I also mounted my grinding system in a weatherproof box with a clear lid to make sure there are no unseen issues with the grounding system. If you do not want to use anti fouling extenders you could go the expensive route and determine the thread diameter and pitch, purchase the appropriate drill bit and tap and do a direct thread in to the copper bar.this set up will need to be placed in a weather proof container and all wires leading in and out of the container should be sealed.
Thanks for the vid. You know, people say that there is no point to buy a radio because SW is dying but I think they miss the point. Those same people should be getting their licences and become skilled because THEY may well become that voice they say is dying. I bought a Sony 7600GR the day after 911 because I thought the truthful news would probably be gotten in the SW frequencies and not main stream channels, especially if US got hit again and again, knocking out main stations anyway. Things calmed down but over time everything has gotten worse and these days im studying for my licence.
Very good points all. I remember back in the early 1990's when everyone said that satellite communications would make SW obsolete and people were buying big used sat dishes and putting them in their front yards. Monitoring Times even launched "Satellite Times", that was soon discontinued. Then in the late 1990's it was the internet that was going to make SW obsolete. Nothing can take the place of a free radio system that uses low band frequencies that can reach around the world. Look at Air Force One, it uses a deployable long-wire antenna that can communicate with submarines via SW anywhere on the planet.
Tech has created a sense of security in the belief that systems can do everything through software and not fail. And tech has made people more dumb. How many people who have used a calculator for decades can still manually add a column of numbers? Im studying for my licence and in that i have to learn Morse Code too. In boating, there cant be reliance that no EMP would ever strike and that GPS remains stable, I have to learn manual navigation. But in the skills comes freedom and SELF-reliance. I love tech but its not my Plan B, *IM* my Plan B. Its for this I wish the whole world learns about electricity, SW, the ham world. There is a ham girl on YT, her name is Diane Eng and she has a video about drawing power straight off of radio signals. Thats something to learn about and why its possible. If a person wants to spend their time learning every cat video in YT, fine for them but I dont know how thats going to help in SHTF--or in a persons brain power.
cvcoco: would you mind providing the link to the RUclips video that you referenced?
ruclips.net/video/lslHtCUSfN4/видео.html
Would a 150 foot electricians snake for running wires work
As long as you could keep it insulated. An insulated paper clip is an antenna, or could be. Mostly an antenna is about what frequency range you are fishing for and what direction it lies in, in comparison to your location. This determines how long the antenna should be, what angles it should have and which way to point it. But in reality it’s all about collecting electricity from the air. I think grounding is the most complicated aspect after that, I.e., how, what, when.
I'd love this, hey my little RCA has no external antenna jack , can I use an alligator clip to my reg aluminum folding antenna on the radio
Absolutley!
I recommend that you buy an SDRPlay RSP1a (approx $120) or a genuine RTL-SDR v3.0 dongle if on a budget (approx $30). With either of these devices and a PC or tablet you can receive almost any transmissions from Long wave AM up to FM radio and TV broadcasts, satellite weather and aircraft or shipping beacons when nearby. It will open up a huge amount of info to you. Get a HAM license and learn a bit more and you'll then have the knowledge and skills if required!
Get your license, yet? My only critique would be to raise the end of the antenna as high as you can in the tree. View "qrp" operation, "9:1 un-un", and an "L-match". You can make all three on the cheap! VK3YE has good vids on the "tube". Prepping is Knowledge!
If i use the BC-610 on this the horses will enjoy the RF output.
12:34 Lol info wars, if you don't know he's kind of became a meme, I'M A HUMAN, AND I'M COMIN! 😂
MauriatOttolink
china radio shortwave is SO strong in Thailand with a tuned antenna and a diode we charge our car bertties overnight with it hahahaha
A fence works to boost am radio to
The Ham recommended method for grounding is an 8 foot rod sunk into the ground and grounds tied to it. You should use a balun or matching transformer with the antenna to eliminate all that static. 73 from K9POW in eastern Tennessee.
Baluns shouldn't have any effect on static.
@@joewoodchuck3824 It would be a UnUn in this case (or an isolation transformer) and yes it does have a great effect on blocking RFI generated by electrical devices inside the house and traveling down the feed line. No, won't eliminate static coming from afar (like from lightning).
In an End of the world emergency, would we not have electricity ?
Good point. The FRG-7 can run on D batteries as well.
If a lightning strike, no matter how good the ground, your radio will be damaged, I guarantee. 1. Another hookup, two wires in the air going off in opposite directions to two different trees. They don't have to be 180 degrees apart, but you want them more than 90 degrees. Bring the two ends to the house and connect them to old fashioned TV Twinlead aka ribbon aka 300 ohm. Bring that into the house, connect either lead to the red antenna terminal, the other to the black ground terminal, and Voila! There is no polarity to this, does not matter which lead is hooked to red or black. 2. Another hookup that I once rigged up for a friend, old 2-story house with a big walk around attic. You can use 18-22 gauge insulated hookup wire and little plastic phone wire clips like you use along a baseboard, the ones with a little nail in them. First I ran a length of TV twinlead through a 1/2" hole we drilled in the ceiling of a closet near his desk in an upstairs room. Plenty of length so that he could roll up the twinlead in the closet out of the way and unseen. We sealed the hole with poster putty, and ran the twinlead over to a nice Icom R75 receiver to the red and black antenna/ground terminals. Back in the attic, we put the plastic clips around the perimeter of the attic on the rafters. We ran 22 ga hookup wire from one lead of the Twinlead, around the attic in a big loop, and back to the other lead of the Twinlead. Worked great from the AM broadcast band up to well above the 15 meter (21 mHz) band.
I can only find one thing that I would include in your set up. As long as there’s no bugs are bad guys around and it’s just for listening in regular times I would suggest that you tie a couple of colored ribbons to the antenna so the birds don’t fly into it or someone running with a pole or something in your hand does it run into it. I love the FRG a.k.a. the frog seven. Thank you very much for the great video I have subscribed and if he would wish you could subscribe back
You Need To Counterwight The Anttenna, BUT Not With Just Some Heavy Thing, THAT Heavy Thing Needs To Be Connected To A Strong Rubber , Lets Say A Bicycle Tire Loops, Just Cut A Inner Tube Of A Bicycle In Loops, Then Knoiw Them On Each Other And THEN Put The Counterbalaance On To The Wire Of The Antennas Wire So If The Wind Blows, There Will be SOmething That Stablitates The Wire And Not Just Snaps It. :) Thats How I Use It !
Has anybody considered a simple contractors tape measure. 100 footer covers many freqs. Toss a rope or string over a tree branch. pull out as much tape as you need. When done disconnect the rope, reel in the tape. coil up the rope and go home. It could fit in your pants pocket.
+Frederick Wise I know that there are spring loaded temporary wire antennas on the market. Some people use them when they are camping, etc. I've never used one, but they seem like a good item for a bug-out bag.
Hey Mr. Lightning, here I am.
This video is about throwing up an antenna quickly, using materials that you may have laying around. It's not meant to be a permanent solution. Serious grounding takes planning, time and the right hardware, the vast majority of watchers get that.
"Technology house of cards" with each new generation more delicate and fragile than the last. Learn Morse code.
Ed, KI6DCB
de KA3FAD
"Technology house of cards"
Then continues to show how to use modern technology to be prepared.
@@sparky42 Dit dit.
hello i am trying to make a shortwave wire antenna but my radio uses a coax connection for an antenna how can i connect the wire antenna to the radio
@Benji The Rabbit There's one good way of doing that. Get an adapter that converts Coax to an RCA type connector. You can then attach an alligator clip to your long wire and bite it on the center prong of the RCA connector. Then attach an alligator clip to your ground wire and bite it to the outside ring of the RCA connector. Make sure that the two alligator clips never touch, or you will ground the signal.
@@SixteenChickens thank you so much for the help ive been trying to find a way to connect the antenna but every video just shows you how to connect it to a radio with connections for a wire antenna also does it matter what type of wire i use for the wire for the antenna
Studies have show that the type of wire is almost irrelevant. I would go with an aluminum or copper wire that is thin enough to roll up, but thick enough to withstand stretching.
@@SixteenChickens the wire im using has a coating on the outside does that affect its ability to act as an antennna
No, not really, unless it says on the wire that it is shielded. Some wires are wrapped by a special shielded coating that prevents outside signals from penetrating to the core wire. This is good when you are using an externally mounted antenna, but on a shortwave long wire you want to receive all of the signal that you can. Chances are you just have a wire that uses a plastic coating on the outside. I use the same kind of wire to connect my long wire to my shortwave radio.
I don't have ceramic how about plastic o-rings
As long as they can stand the stress, they should be fine.
You want to keep the antenna away from any branches with leaves on. They do not have to touch. Being close is enough to absorb signal from the antenna especially when wet. So cut them down or back away from the antenna path. If you were tansmiting on the antenna you would certainly see the difference on the tuning/VSWR.
John Cliff Its not a transmitter its a sw reciever
I have a dipole with the feedpoint up in a tree. The two ends come down to insulators tied to paracord. The paracord then goes though a pulley with a pvc pipe with caps that have water in them to act a counterweight. When the tree flexes, the counterweights move up/down and does not stretch my tuned antenna or break it in high winds.
This would have been more useful 50 years ago, during the heyday of shortwave radio. I'm not sure you would get much useful news from the motley crew of current shortwave broadcasters. (It's really hard to pick up even the BBC on shortwave in the US anymore.) Better to use this nice setup for SWLing (listening to shortwave radio as a hobby.)
Just under 7m above ground will be alright for the 20m band. Where is your balun? You don't want RF in your radio room.
You should ballun that antenna so your feed line is not part of the resonance factor of the antenna..
Infowars! :))
I did not see any kind of LIGHTNING ARREST ER mounted outside the house. A direct hit would come directly into your shack and really ruin your day.
John Acord, Yes, that's why I unplug my antenna before any bad weather. This was only meant to demonstrate how you can set up a fast shortwave wire with items that are laying around your property, perhaps in an emergency. In the best of conditions and with proper planning, you would assure a permanent grounding setup. Thanks for the comment!!
@@SixteenChickens as long as you only use the radio in good weather, you don't need a full lightening arrestor system but it still would be a good idea to put a knife switch between the antenna and the ground wire to short the antenna to ground. that would be safer than leaving the antenna disconnected in a storm, if the antenna did get hit by lightening and was not grounded, your house would become the path to ground and that could be a really dangerous thing....
It is true that without an antenna like that the radio is deaf
erm.. ANY radio is deaf without an antenna lol
but yes, i decent longwire is whats required.
You don't _need_ a longwire antenna to listen to shortwave. It really depends on what kind of radio you have, how much real estate is available, and what your end goal is.
If you're using a portable SW radio, a longwire will likely overload it. The OP's FRG-7 has circuitry that eliminates RF overload. Also, without a considerable length at hand, you're likely just creating a large beverage antenna with little benefit over something tuned, like an amplified loop antenna.
In my opinion, loop antennas make the best SW antennas. They require no real estate, can be amplified with low power, require very little installation considerations (no RF ground wire required), and in most cases can be deployed in an attic or crawlspace.
You are wrong. My active loop would make that aerial look quite inferior.
ya, just don't listen to Infowars for your outside world info, Alex Jones is wacked! Nice classic receiver with a good reputation and very good value.
If your going to go thru the work of putting it up...at least use non-ferrous wire such as copper or aluminum. Ps baluns can be purchased for less than ten bucks.
It is a receiver. It doesn't need a balun, nor does it expect a 50 Ohm connection like most of today's radio transceivers.
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Info warz yoo
Heck yeah..Alex jones comes in good.
Just Don`t Turn On The Electric Fencing When You Are Connected To Any Radio
Become a ham radio operator get to play with all sorts of stuff and transmit legally all over the world
It's better than just listening
🖐🏼🎙73's kd9oam