long wire

[hally68]

hi ive been listening to sw just a few months i have a tecsun bcl 3000 and a tecsun pl 600 i think lol so i cant put an antenna up as the housing trust wont allow it so i use a piece of flexweave thrown across the garden it does the job im just confused about how long the wire has to be and is this the only way for me to pick up stations help please thanks wayne

[bigal68]

Hi Wayne,

For receiving the general rule is "the longer the better".

The longwire doesnt need to be in a straight line either, sometimes bent in various "dogleg" shapes can be a bonus.

I'm not familiar with the equipment you mention, however, if you are struggling to hear much, I would recommend some sort of atu to tune the length of wire to the frequencies you wish to listen to.

Also, and I use one of these connected to my FRG8800, if you can I would consider some sort of preselector preamp similar to the active antennas madeby MFJ.

I'm a bit limited for space and definitely limited for longwire height at home, and a tunable variable preamp has made a big difference to my setup.

Hope this helps.

[hally68]

many thanks for the reply bigal68 i have got myself some 20 mtrs of flexweave and hookked it up to my radio and i have noticed an improvement in my radio i cant afford a good receiver allthough i would love to get one if you could reccomend one for maybe 200 - 300 pound max that would be greatly appreciated thanks wayne.

[Kaos]

Have you thought of a TV Dongle for HF listening.

Lots of them out there at WAYYYYYY under your price range.

RTL DONGLE is your key words you need for google. Goto cosycave.co.uk and loof for their SDR offers. Then search youtube for what they do and offer.

Opens up a whole new world.

[Allan666]

One of my wire aerials is 66 feet of wire going from my house down the garden with a Unan on the end of it close to the wall of my house, Then 50 ohm cable that goes into my house and into an ATU, Iv transmitted around the world on it,A Yeasu Frg7 receiver would do ya about £75 of eBay or equivalent Kenwood,Icom.

[hally68]

thanks everyone im spoilt for choice i am quite intetrested in the sdr dongle as i am into scanning to i have a ubc 3500xlt and a diamond d777 on the side of the house im abot to buy a laptop in the near future so could anyone recomend a dongle to,start me off i have also been looking at some receivers on e bay you reccomended and im liking the idea of owning one of those to so thanks guys i need as much help as possible,wayne

[punkrocker62]

Good info here http://www.rtl-sdr.com/rtl-sdr-quick-start-guide/

[hally68]

i think as im a bit strapped for cash the one id go for is the dongle very reasonable price as well many thanks guys

[Admiral]

so i cant put an antenna up as the housing trust wont allow it

and a diamond d777 on the side of the house

Make your mind up.