SW Antenna ideas needed for my Pilot radiogram in South Africa - UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum

nola.barnard · 24th Jan 2016, 11:34 am

Hi
I am looking for some advise for an antenna for tuning in to SW in South Africa. Are there specific setups of antenna or kind of antennas that work better than others?
I am struggling to fine tune my stations on my 1942 Pilot radiogram and would love some ideas and proposals from the clever people seeing that I am a beginner in the radio world.
Thank you very much!
Kind regards
Nola

Herald1360 · 24th Jan 2016, 12:49 pm

That's a very big question!

Typically, the aerial for a radiogram like you describe would just have been a random length of wire up to a hundred feet or so strung between the house eaves and a convenient pole or tree with the downlead fed into the room by the set through an insulated hole in wall or windowframe.

That doesn't necessarily help with fine tuning of signals- that is more likely just down to shortcomings in the design of a domestic set covering the whole shortwave band in one range. Think of this..... one station is about 10kHz wide, the shortwave band is about 15,000kHz wide so one station only occupies 1/1500 of the number of turns of the tuning knob, probably less than 1 degree. Backlash and other tuning drive problems are probably worse than that! Add to that other problems with the set's lack of selectivity and susceptibility to spurious responses to signals on other frequencies and you have the proverbial "box of whistles".

There's no easy fix (except to acquire a purpose designed shortwave receiver). That needn't cost much nowadays- a cheap digitally tuned set will solve the tuning problem though it may not solve the interference ones.

Radio Wrangler · 24th Jan 2016, 2:08 pm

There may be some quite decent second-hand purpose-designed shortwave sets on the market in your area. It's worth looking and asking around... everything from very heavy valved world war 2 jobs to modern Japanese amateur receivers with general coverage capability.

Most ordinary broadcast receivers with shortwave bands are somewhat limited and you'll grow out of it very rapidly.

David

24th Jan 2016, 2:42 pm

I use a Wellbrook loop for my radios that need an external aerial. OK they are a bit pricey but worth every penny, go to the review section of the website for opinions, I think they are at least conservative. I don't bother with matching the (50 ohm nominal) loop to older sets designed for simple wire aerials, it just works.

24th Jan 2016, 11:34 am	#1
nola.barnard Retired Dormant Member Join Date: Sep 2015 Location: Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa Posts: 1	SW Antenna ideas needed for my Pilot radiogram in South Africa Hi I am looking for some advise for an antenna for tuning in to SW in South Africa. Are there specific setups of antenna or kind of antennas that work better than others? I am struggling to fine tune my stations on my 1942 Pilot radiogram and would love some ideas and proposals from the clever people seeing that I am a beginner in the radio world. Thank you very much! Kind regards Nola

24th Jan 2016, 12:49 pm	#2
Herald1360 Dekatron Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Leominster, Herefordshire, UK. Posts: 16,536	Re: SW Antenna ideas needed for my Pilot radiogram in South Africa That's a very big question! Typically, the aerial for a radiogram like you describe would just have been a random length of wire up to a hundred feet or so strung between the house eaves and a convenient pole or tree with the downlead fed into the room by the set through an insulated hole in wall or windowframe. That doesn't necessarily help with fine tuning of signals- that is more likely just down to shortcomings in the design of a domestic set covering the whole shortwave band in one range. Think of this..... one station is about 10kHz wide, the shortwave band is about 15,000kHz wide so one station only occupies 1/1500 of the number of turns of the tuning knob, probably less than 1 degree. Backlash and other tuning drive problems are probably worse than that! Add to that other problems with the set's lack of selectivity and susceptibility to spurious responses to signals on other frequencies and you have the proverbial "box of whistles". There's no easy fix (except to acquire a purpose designed shortwave receiver). That needn't cost much nowadays- a cheap digitally tuned set will solve the tuning problem though it may not solve the interference ones. __________________ ....__________ ....\|____\|\|__\|__\_____ .=.\| _---\__\|__\|_---_\|. .........O..Chris....O

24th Jan 2016, 2:08 pm	#3
Radio Wrangler Moderator Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Fife, Scotland, UK. Posts: 22,899	Re: SW Antenna ideas needed for my Pilot radiogram in South Africa There may be some quite decent second-hand purpose-designed shortwave sets on the market in your area. It's worth looking and asking around... everything from very heavy valved world war 2 jobs to modern Japanese amateur receivers with general coverage capability. Most ordinary broadcast receivers with shortwave bands are somewhat limited and you'll grow out of it very rapidly. David __________________ Can't afford the volcanic island yet, but the plans for my monorail and the goons' uniforms are done

24th Jan 2016, 2:42 pm	#4
Guest Guest Posts: n/a	Re: SW Antenna ideas needed for my Pilot radiogram in South Africa I use a Wellbrook loop for my radios that need an external aerial. OK they are a bit pricey but worth every penny, go to the review section of the website for opinions, I think they are at least conservative. I don't bother with matching the (50 ohm nominal) loop to older sets designed for simple wire aerials, it just works.