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Old 20th Nov 2018, 9:26 pm   #1
Julianh
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Default Aerial recomendation please.

Hi All,

Could anyone recommend an easy-ish way to get an aerial signal into the radio. There is a ventalation brick near where I want to put the radio, so I can get a wire through that. I already feed the mains to the shed through one side of it. But what do I do for the actual Aerial? I have a reel of coax cable if I want.

What would you recommend I used as an aerial for my first working radio?

A Murphy A128, the first of a few, and perhaps a little younger then the others I intend to get, hopefully 1930s

Thanks

Julian
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Old 20th Nov 2018, 10:35 pm   #2
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Default Re: Aerial recomendation please.

For LW, MW and SW reception on a domestic receiver use the longest wire possible strung as high as possible.

Any siingle wire will do so long as it has sufficient strength. I've used bell wire, cores stripped out of mains cable and enamelled copper wire stripped from old transformers in my time. No need for insulators. Plastic string, often colured orange, is fine.
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Old 21st Nov 2018, 10:59 am   #3
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Default Re: Aerial recomendation please.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Station X View Post
Plastic string, often colured orange, is fine.
Be careful though that some of the 'orange plastic string' you find in rural areas is actually electric-fence 'wire' and has a couple of thin steel-wire strands woven into it! Not what you want for an insulator.

--G6Tanuki.
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Old 21st Nov 2018, 11:28 am   #4
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Default Re: Aerial recomendation please.

If you have a wooden fence then you can run the aerial wire along the top of that. If possible you should run the wire to the bottom of your garden or yard, as this places the bulk of it away from interference generated inside the house.
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Old 21st Nov 2018, 12:14 pm   #5
G8HQP Dave
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Default Re: Aerial recomendation please.

To a first approximation the total height of the antenna tells you the amount of signal picked up. The total length of the antenna tells you how much of that signal will make it into the receiver. This is for LW and MW; short waves are a bit more complicated.

The part of the antenna nearer the receiver will contribute more signal, but this is also nearer the house so will pick up more noise.
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Old 22nd Nov 2018, 1:45 am   #6
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Default Re: Aerial recomendation please.

With a random length of wire - the so-called 'longwire' - don't forget to add a good R.F. earth: can make a significant increase to signal / noise ratio.

Al.
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Old 22nd Nov 2018, 2:05 am   #7
dave walsh
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Default Re: Aerial recomendation please.

All the standard and very good advice there Julian. you wouldn't need the coax unless you were feeding the centre of a SW Dipole perhaps or an upright vertical [my dad fixed a tank aerial onto the edge of the roof for me once-I was in in the Box-then radio room]. That's not the name of the game here though as G8Dave said.

Books from the thirties show that a good 100' length of wire between high masts was thought desirable but in practise, most people couldn't manage that. Running a wire round the picture rail was common. Have you tried an indoor option already just to see what happens? Whilst the theory IS a bit of an exact science, it's like live recording, you can sometimes get surprising results on a trial basis that "reflect" your immediate surroundings.
The earth will help if well watered. Maybe not a problem where you are. A piece of buried scrap metal attached to some old cable will do or some sort of stake but not an eight foot one as some one else has mentioned.

Dave W

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Old 22nd Nov 2018, 9:41 am   #8
rontech
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Default Re: Aerial recomendation please.

At every house my father owned ( 1936 - 1964 ), He installed a 30ft high pine pole at the bottom of the garden. ( He worked for a firm of timber importers! ). The pole was moved from house to house with us and needed a new concrete and timber support arrangement each time. A length of aerial wire with insulators, ran from the pole top to the house eaves then down to the living room. I recall that all our radios would virtually close the "magic eye" on powerful staions. Back in the day one could buy various items such as insulators and a bakelite tube with copper rod centre. Drill the window frame etc.
Screw terminal at each end of the rod. I imagine the aerial length would be about 70 - 80 feet.
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Old 22nd Nov 2018, 10:56 am   #9
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Default Re: Aerial recomendation please.

Most houses had substantial garden aerials until the 60s. I imagine this practice originated when sensitive radios were very expensive and many people were using 'cat's whisker' crystal sets. My parents' house (built 1935) had one, complete with a big knife switch on the windowsill to disconnect it during storms. I think it was removed around 1960 - it certainly wasn't there in my teenage years.
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Old 22nd Nov 2018, 1:56 pm   #10
rontech
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Default Re: Aerial recomendation please.

Wow! I forgot about the knife switch
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Old 22nd Nov 2018, 2:11 pm   #11
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Talking Re: Aerial recomendation please.

I've got two 'knife' switches here: one is in use with my 'longwire' aerial.

I bought the first one at a car boot sale many years ago. The seller asked me what I was going to do with it. So I told him as an aerial earthing switch, etc. He gave me a funny look - and asked me to explain further. During a brief explanation of vintage radios and their 'needs', etc., I slowly began to realise that he had absolutely no idea of what I was going on about - and I also gradually began to feel very old! Or should that be 'vintage'?

Al.
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Old 22nd Nov 2018, 5:18 pm   #12
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Default Re: Aerial recomendation please.

I use a knife switch on my long wire (runs from first floor kitchen window to end of basement garden) to switch the aerial to either the eddystone or the sailor or mid position in case of storms.
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Old 22nd Nov 2018, 5:30 pm   #13
dave walsh
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Default Re: Aerial recomendation please.

Vintage or preferably "Senior" Citizen Al. Small children or teenagers do that, ask a question then glaze over because they don't have any ability to process the answer or any manners. Acceptable in the under fives!

Dave W
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Old 23rd Nov 2018, 9:43 am   #14
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Default Re: Aerial recomendation please.

It is "vintage" Al (skywave ).

I had a central heating engineer here yesterday. He was looking at the set up in my den. There was a 78 DECCA on the turntable and he said "not seen vinyl for a long time. I thought no one plays them nowadays".

When I explained it appeared that he had never even heard of 78s
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