Recieve antennas in an Urban area

[Richard Thorne]

Just curious what others are using for receive antennas.  I have a
vertical mounted on my rear fence which does a nice job transmitting,
but it gets a bit noisy some times.  I use an SGC-239 tuner at the base
and it tunes from 10 through 80.

I've looked at the Wellbrook loops and they look interesting
http://www.wellbrook.uk.com/products.html#ALA1530  I have a small back
yard so the larger K9AY loops are not an option.

The other antenna I've looked at is the DX Engineering active antennas.
http://www.dxengineering.com/Products.asp?ID=220&SecID=79&DeptID=12

I could mount either of these antennas on my chimney and use a small
rotor to rotate them for directivity.

My current interest is 80/40/30 meters but that will start changing as
the new sunspot cycle starts.

So what is the group using for receive antenna's?

Rich - N5ZC



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[n6wg]

Good morning Rich
I have three receiving loops here--a full size Flag loop pointed toward
New York, a tuned 160m loop and an untuned coax loop for 80-40-30m
The last two loops take turns sitting on my portable base with a small
Radio Shack TV rotator.  During contests I put it in my front yard,
well away from my transmit antennas.  The rest of the time, these
two loops are taken off the base and leaned against my fence inside
my back yard.  Because of their relatively small pickup area, I use
an old Ameco tunable preamp with them.

The full-size Flag loop is suspended between two masts that also hold up
various other antennas.  Its main claim to fame is a cardioid pattern
that gives it a good rejection off the rear.  Since that is where a lot of
my local suburban noise comes from, this is a relatively quiet antenna
for me.  Its primary use is on 160m, but it also works FB on 80, and
even 40 at times.

There is an excellent site for the Flag loop with all kinds of good info at
http://www.angelfire.com/md/k3ky/page37.html

For the rotatable loops, there is also a ton of material on the web.  Just
search for "loop antenna" and you'll find enough reading tokeep you
busy for a while :-)

Good luck and 73
Bob N6WG
----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Thorne" <[hidden email]>
To: "Elecraft" <[hidden email]>
Sent: Sunday, April 22, 2007 8:53 AM
Subject: [Elecraft] Recieve antennas in an Urban area

> Just curious what others are using for receive antennas.  I have a
> vertical mounted on my rear fence which does a nice job transmitting,
> but it gets a bit noisy some times.  I use an SGC-239 tuner at the base
> and it tunes from 10 through 80.
>
> I've looked at the Wellbrook loops and they look interesting
> http://www.wellbrook.uk.com/products.html#ALA1530  I have a small back
> yard so the larger K9AY loops are not an option.
>
> The other antenna I've looked at is the DX Engineering active antennas.
> http://www.dxengineering.com/Products.asp?ID=220&SecID=79&DeptID=12
>
> I could mount either of these antennas on my chimney and use a small
> rotor to rotate them for directivity.
>
> My current interest is 80/40/30 meters but that will start changing as
> the new sunspot cycle starts.
>
> So what is the group using for receive antenna's?
>
> Rich - N5ZC
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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> You must be a subscriber to post to the list.
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>
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[Ron D'Eau Claire-2]

Many Hams report excellent results using a wire on the ground, but insulated
from it, for receiving where local noise is a problem. The signal-to-noise
ratio at the ground is typically much better than when the wire is elevated
as in a normal antenna.

Of course, signal levels will drop too, but it's the S/N ratio that counts.
Any decent receiver, like the K2, has more than enough gain to make up for
the reduced signal. Just turn the preamp on to pick up nearly 20 dB excess
gain. Most such on-ground antennas are reported to show between 10 and 15 dB
lower signal than a comparable antenna up in the clear.

With a small lot I suggest running a wire around the perimeter making it as
long as you can and connect one end to your rig. Be sure the wire is
insulated from the earth itself. Run it along a fence just above the ground
or use insulated wire lying on the ground.

Ron AC7AC

-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email]
[mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Richard Thorne
Sent: Sunday, April 22, 2007 8:53 AM
To: Elecraft
Subject: [Elecraft] Recieve antennas in an Urban area


Just curious what others are using for receive antennas.  I have a
vertical mounted on my rear fence which does a nice job transmitting,
but it gets a bit noisy some times.  I use an SGC-239 tuner at the base
and it tunes from 10 through 80.

I've looked at the Wellbrook loops and they look interesting
http://www.wellbrook.uk.com/products.html#ALA1530  I have a small back
yard so the larger K9AY loops are not an option.

The other antenna I've looked at is the DX Engineering active antennas.
http://www.dxengineering.com/Products.asp?ID=220&SecID=79&DeptID=12

I could mount either of these antennas on my chimney and use a small
rotor to rotate them for directivity.

My current interest is 80/40/30 meters but that will start changing as
the new sunspot cycle starts.

So what is the group using for receive antenna's?

Rich - N5ZC



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[Vic K2VCO]

Richard Thorne wrote:

> So what is the group using for receive antenna's?

There are all kinds of specialized receiving antennas such as loops,
ferrite loops, and even Beverages (but they don't fit in urban locations!)

My experience has been that the most important thing is to use a
balanced horizontal antenna.  Of course it should be as high and away
from noise sources as possible. It should use a balun or be fed with
balanced line in order to reduce noise pickup on the feedline which
passes close to various noise sources.

You can buy or make a *balanced* active antenna which is much smaller
than a full-sized dipole. Many active antennas are unbalanced, which is
not desirable.
--
73,
Vic, K2VCO
Fresno CA
http://www.qsl.net/k2vco
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[N8LP]

I designed a nifty minibeam about 5-6 years ago. It uses active
circuitry on receive, and a rather complicated set of element tuners for
transmit (with relays and stepper motor). I created a PC interface to
drive the transmit circuitry from software, and prototyped a standalone
PIC controller, but have been too busy filling kit orders for my other
projects to finish it. I use an OCF dipole for transmit most of the time
now, and the active minibeam for receive. It's quite small, covers
80-10m in receive, and has instant front/back switching.

I submitted the project to QST/QEX, but they don't think there's enough
interest without the transmit controller. I also had a couple commercial
antenna manufacturers seriously interested, but nothing has come of it
yet. Look for details on my website, www.telepostinc.com under the
"E-Beam" link.

73,
Larry N8LP



Vic K2VCO wrote:

> Richard Thorne wrote:
>
>> So what is the group using for receive antenna's?
>
> There are all kinds of specialized receiving antennas such as loops,
> ferrite loops, and even Beverages (but they don't fit in urban
> locations!)
>
> My experience has been that the most important thing is to use a
> balanced horizontal antenna.  Of course it should be as high and away
> from noise sources as possible. It should use a balun or be fed with
> balanced line in order to reduce noise pickup on the feedline which
> passes close to various noise sources.
>
> You can buy or make a *balanced* active antenna which is much smaller
> than a full-sized dipole. Many active antennas are unbalanced, which
> is not desirable.

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[Bill Coleman-2]

On Apr 22, 2007, at 11:53 AM, Richard Thorne wrote:

> I have a small back yard so the larger K9AY loops are not an option.

You don't need much space for a set of K9AY loops. Gary used 85 feet  
for the loop length, but you can use a shorter length, too.

I have a single K9AY loop of 44 feet that is mounted under a small  
oak tree. It works very well on 80m, to a lessor extent on 40m and 160m.

If you have a shrub or tree that can support a wire 10 feet or so  
high, then you should be able to configure a K9AY loop.

Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL        Mail: [hidden email]
Quote: "Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!"
             -- Wilbur Wright, 1901

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