My Long Wave Box Antenna
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- Опубликовано: 7 сен 2024
- I made this after being frustrated at the performance of the Chinese portables on Long Wave compared to the Sony ICF-2001D which can get stations more easily with its own ferrite antenna. Also that I have not been able to find a LW Antenna for sale suitable for portable similar to the Tecsun AN-200 which is designed for MW.
I was surprised how well it improves reception indoors, especially when you consider the amount of typical modern QRM about that could have dampened reception. Yes I am doing inductive coupling here but I am now able to catch LW stations on these portables that I never could before.
All stations received at home in the UK.
Amazing how simply things can be when people like yourself share these D.I.Y antenna mods, thanks for sharing and 73 Lee
No problem, hope that you build one up too. 73s!
This is a very convincing demo ! It proves that most small shortwave radios have a poor sensitivity on LW and MW, simply because the internal ferrite rod is too small and that manufacturers don't care at all about LW and MW. The Sony 2001 D is a serious performer on those bands because it has a longer ferrite rod. But the 2001 D itself also benefits from inductive coupling with a loop antenna.
The improvement is remarkable and I have received transatlantic DX with it and a home made loop. I have not yet made a passive loop for LW, but I built an amplified ferrite antenna that can be directly fed or inductively coupled to any receiver without antenna input. This works great and gives equivalent results to a large loop in a compact size. I will post a video some day of that setup of mine.
I'm sure you will get Turkmenistan (I got it once) with your "PS3 box antenna" and also Mongolia, at least after France Inter goes QRT in a few months as scheduled.
73 !
Thanks very much for your comment. I agree regarding the poor reception these portables (except for the Sonys of course) have on the LF bands, they should be better. That is why in my opinion Tecsun made the AN-200 loops in order to compensate for their initial lack of sensitivity in getting weaker stations. The problem is that those loops only work on the MW band & not LW which is why I made this.
Many congrats with the great results you had with the home made loop, sounds very impressive & I look forward to your video.
As for Turkmenistan + Mongolia on LW, I am convinced this will have to be an outdoor effort in the winter & is going to be very challenging. 73s!
Hello,
Interesting video and great to see how a simple set up works. It really reminds me of the Tecsun AN200 for MW. Fantastic easy set up without having to break the bank. I seen it brought in Antena Satelor 153khz, which is one of my favourite longwave stations.
Hi there. I built this because I could not find a LW induction antenna commercially available. Thankfully it works how I intended it to. Thanks for watching.
Great project loop antenna that really works well! I'm into LW at the moment - roll on Mongolia this winter! ;-). Great stuff and thanks for sharing. 73! Clint
Thank you very much & no problem. Yes Mongolia would be a dream to receive on LW here as well as Turkmenistan on 279 kHz now Belarus has left that frequency. Your 200m longwire should help catch those stations when the right conditions are about. 73s!
Hi there, yes, indeed. In fact I was discussing this with Matthias yesterday and it seems that Mongolia on LW might be the Holy Grail for DXers! I had a look for a carrier from Turkmenistan this morning, but alas, nothing on the Wellbrook. I think you're right, this is a job for the 200 m longwire when the time is right. 73! Clint
Great idea to build a loop antenna for LW and it works really well! Congrats & 73!
Thank you very much. This goes to show that the Tecsun & other Chinese portables can receive distant LW stations but need better internal antennas to do so. If they did, then it would create more interest on this band to other people starting out in the hobby. 73s!
Dear DX collegue, congratulations for such a big step towards .... bravo, bravo !!! and thank you for sharing your moments ! 73, Klaus
Thank you very much for your kind comments. I wanted to show everyone how easy & cheap it is to do something like this, yet it is really effective in my opinion. Happy DXing & 73s!
Great results of using such an original antenna, 73!
Thank you very much. For something so basic, it does the trick for me. 73s!
Very interesting project for my PlayStation 3 box. Best wishes from Brazil. :-)
Thank you very much. Yes if you have an empty PS3 Slim box around then this will be very ideal for building a LW antenna. 73s!
Very nice indeed, i may look into doing something like this. Its almost impossible to get anything here in LW. Thank you for the video. 73s! :)
No problem. I still recommend doing a project like this, as it is very cheap & easy to do. You may be surprised what you may hear. I know in N. America they use LW for beacons like NDBs but you might get a European station. 73s!
Great video! I just bought my first LW/SW capable radio... Tecsun PL-310ET. I have had no success tuning any LW signal, now I know why. I want to build your antenna and had a few questions. I presume length of wire needed is ~ 61.2 m (34+34+34+34 x 45 turns). Is it ok to solder several shorter wires if I can't get a long enough wire? I was thinking to use the single-core wire found in 4-wire telephone cable. I can get 15m long and separate out each wire and solder them together into 1 long wire I can wrap around a box. Second question, I don't have the budget for an air dielectric variable capacitor. Can I just use some cheaper trim caps (maybe range from 20-160 pF) linked in parallel instead? I'm excited to try out your project and see if it works for my radio!
Thank you very much for the compliment. I am not the most technical of radio people but I will try my best to answer your questions.
1. The correct length of wire is needed to achieve the required results. It does not have to be too precise, but it helps for which part of the band you are making the antenna for. I used a calculator on the internet that is specific for inductive antennas. Remember that the lower down the frequency range you go, the more wire is needed. When I did my MW inductive antenna, I used less wire because that band has a higher frequency range
2. Yes you can solder shorter several wires if for eg the first time you wrapped the wire around a box did not get the results you wanted. I did that with mine.
3. As long as the wire used is conductive then it is fine. I used 30AWG electrical wire because of how thin it is to wrap around the box & also easy to solder.
4. I have no experience in linking capacitors. I would say it is best to find one that is from an old radio which would make the whole process easier. Ebay usually has them. Anything from 700 pF & above is recommended.
I hope you build your antenna with great success.
Thank you! I have 24 AWG multi-stranded, 2 spools of 100 feet each so that should be enough. I am going to stick to 34cm square or maybe I might make it hexagonal (or would a circle be best?). I am assuming also 40-50 turns so if I space each turn by 5mm I will still need about a 25 cm deep cylinder! I'm thinking I should wrap the loops too close as they can couple to each other. I only have a bunch of variable caps that get me from 20pf-500pf if I join a few in parallel. I may have to add a fixed cap to get me into the proper range. I guess I find out by experimenting? Hopefully I will find some signals. Thanks again!
It’s a simple but elegant solution to the problem of small portables that are virtually deaf to LW. I’ll have to try to make one myself. Isn’t daft that you can buy things like the AN-200 for MW but no LW equivalent?
Although not pretty imo, at least it works. There is someone on Ebay that sells home made LW induction antennas. But yes, I find it baffling that Tecsun has not made a LW equivalent of the AN-200.
Very nice video. I talked to you on the Official shortwave channel. I liked this video, and the only thing that would have made it better is if you would have narrated it. anyway, good job!
Thank you very much. I would have liked to talk in this video, but some people have trouble understanding what I say. Maybe my accent or the way I talk. In any case, I hope you found this video useful. 73s.
Thanks for demonstrating this. Would this also work with radio controlled watches to improve poor reception? Typical around 77,5 Khz in Europe
Your welcome. This works for radios that have an internal ferrite bar. I don't know what sort of internal antenna a radio controlled watch has since I have never owned one.
Hello and welcome! Really interesting. I will try to make one. Of course, it's difficult to get 700 pF capacitors. Meanwhile, one question: Is the model PL-600 its long wave is acceptable? Because I see the medium waves received on its LW band!?
Hello. To be honest no idea, because I do not own or never tried the PL-600. The closest I have is the PL-660 & even that is not acceptable on LW. The reason is that it has poor performance to receive weak LW stations, which is why I built this box antenna. The MW stations on LW sounds like an overload issue, which is common for portables. Desktop receivers with better performance deal with this better, & also some of the good SDRs out there.
It's very interesting, indeed! Can you give more details on how to make one?! Thank you and 73!
Thank you very much. The details of dimensions & what is required is at the beginning of the video. If you have done a MW induction antenna before, basically it needs more wire so it can reach the lower frequencies for LW reception. 73s!
Very interesting project Nealy same as mine basketena 8 years ago that is used for MW
Did you tried to intercept it for MW reception? Theoretically you need just the one third wire length.
This is my medium model with a 1*1 frame and the an200 texun antenna
Thanks. I did another box antenna which was for MW. If you look on my channel for videos with the title "Radio Caroline" or "La Poderosa", you can see the MW box when used with my portable radios. Cheers.
Than you for nice video ! I'm just receiving an XHDATA unit. What is the suggested diameter of wire ? And one more stupid question (sorry my electronic knowledge is very limited): Should the variable capacitor be connected directly to the two end of wire ?
Thank you very much for the compliments. The diameter of the wire depends on the size of the box or unit you intend to wrap it around in. For example, the smaller the unit used then the more wire is needed, but you still need to know how much is required before the antenna works for you. I recommend Googling "Loop Antenna Calculator" & the first result should take you to a website where you can do all the necessary calculations needed such as width, height, capacitance, etc... The capacitor must be connected directly to the two ends of the wire otherwise the induction or antenna will not work. Hope this helps & good luck.
@@mutezone Thank you for your quick and detailed answer ! I'll try to build the loop.
I've made the loop, and it works very well, even with the Sony ICF-2001D :-). Soon I'll prepare a video on it. Thanks again.
@@balazsbenko9436 No problem. Hope you get lots of great results & I look forward to your video.
@@mutezone It works very well :-) I made a very simple test, available here: ruclips.net/video/4dTfj9PJi5I/видео.html
مشروع رائع ،،ساحاول صنع هوائي مثل هذا ،شكرا ،،think you
Your welcome.
Very good video I forworded this to tom (hamrad88) he wants a LW antenna this is to ez. thankyou KC2NXP
Thanks. Hopefully there is enough information here to build one up easily & very quickly. 73s!
Hi! were can I buy a capacitor like that one? Cheers from Normandy!
Hello. I bought it on Ebay.
i just have a wire , will it work anyway (Without capacitor)?
With the wire on its own, no. You need a capacitor so there is inductive coupling
Please, how many turn you need and how to connect it to the capacitor?
It depends on the diameter of what you are winding the cable to. Google "mw induction antenna calculator" & one of the first websites can give you the answer. Also the capacitor should have ends to clip the wire to.
@@mutezone Tanks!
A like for your vid.
Thank you.