03-08-2006, 01:44 AM
Back to the antenna issue... I seem to have come up with something- I ran a horizontal semi ladder... Basically a pair of long wires: 22 gauge, 24' long, 1' separation, 3/4" from the ceiling, mounted on plastic sewing bobbins held to the ceiling by drywall screws. At the radio end, they are met by another pair of wires perpendicular to the first set, with the same mountings, about 16' long. One side of each pair meets with the #1, the other with the #2, and the jumper between 3&4, with a wire to cold water pipe ground.
Wire down from the lines is FM dipole wire- the clear plastic stuff with 2- 22 gauge wires with 1/2' separation. I may change this, based on feedback here.
SW- the higher ranges are relatively quiet, but it is late night/early morning her, so not unusual. Lower SW bands seem somewhat more active- I picked up China, and Cuba, Cuba a much better signal. On AM I immediately picked up a good signal from 650AM WSM, Nashville, Tn....(I am in Maple Shade, NJ, near Philadelphia, Pa.)
I may add a third pair, at a 45 angle between the first two pairs. Similar to what I used to run around the living room at another house I was in years ago.
I still have some tweaking to do to the arrangement. I initially had one of those blasted .00047 caps as a bogus balun, but while it did a decent job levelling, it also took too much signal. So I clipped it right out. Might try a tiny pF ceramic, or some sort of coil arrangement... I hve fun messing about this way... lol... Just wish they'd let me run a long wire here for real!
Comments?
Scott
Wire down from the lines is FM dipole wire- the clear plastic stuff with 2- 22 gauge wires with 1/2' separation. I may change this, based on feedback here.
SW- the higher ranges are relatively quiet, but it is late night/early morning her, so not unusual. Lower SW bands seem somewhat more active- I picked up China, and Cuba, Cuba a much better signal. On AM I immediately picked up a good signal from 650AM WSM, Nashville, Tn....(I am in Maple Shade, NJ, near Philadelphia, Pa.)
I may add a third pair, at a 45 angle between the first two pairs. Similar to what I used to run around the living room at another house I was in years ago.
I still have some tweaking to do to the arrangement. I initially had one of those blasted .00047 caps as a bogus balun, but while it did a decent job levelling, it also took too much signal. So I clipped it right out. Might try a tiny pF ceramic, or some sort of coil arrangement... I hve fun messing about this way... lol... Just wish they'd let me run a long wire here for real!
Comments?
Scott
Old Cars, Old Radios, Old Pipes and Young Women... What more is there?
