kelabar
Senior Member
Posts: 399
Likes: 469
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Post by kelabar on Jun 4, 2020 21:03:22 GMT 10
I suck at learning about radios. I have an idea though. This is just one of the basic radios (this one from Aussie Disposals) available all over the place. Generally they have a pretty short reception range. I assume this is because of the small antenna. Is it possible to use a long piece of wire in place of or attached to the existing antenna and greatly improve the reception. Both in terms of clarity of reception and also the distance that the radio will receive from? If so is there an easy way to do it? For example, if a station could be heard faintly would an antenna extension increase the sound level coming from the radio? Or would an extension to the antenna enable it to hear stations from further away? And for God's sake don't get technical in your answers, please, or I won't understand it!
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Post by SA Hunter on Jun 4, 2020 22:35:40 GMT 10
I have an old radio - I have used a piece of copper wire - my gran had it before me - she picked up channels in Europe.
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Post by spinifex on Jun 6, 2020 9:15:19 GMT 10
Your gran got Europe from Australia? Or was she living a bit closer? That's outstanding. I've got a big coil of copper wire in the shed ... I'm going to try this!
I haven't used it for years, but my HF radio used to always pick up Indo fishing boats. Some times it received from much further away.
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Post by SA Hunter on Jun 6, 2020 10:24:04 GMT 10
Your gran got Europe from Australia? Or was she living a bit closer? That's outstanding. I've got a big coil of copper wire in the shed ... I'm going to try this! I haven't used it for years, but my HF radio used to always pick up Indo fishing boats. Some times it received from much further away. It was a SW radio, she was in a housing commission flat in Melbourne, 17th floor, and she got Russian radio stations from there.
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Post by spinifex on Jun 7, 2020 9:02:45 GMT 10
We can learn new things all the time with a bit of reading:
According to the internet: "Shortwave radio is radio transmission using shortwave radio frequencies. There is no official definition of the band, but the range always includes all of the high frequency band (HF)" "Radio waves in the shortwave band (HF) can be reflected or refracted from the ionosphere. Therefore, short waves directed at an angle into the sky can be reflected back to Earth at great distances, beyond the horizon. This is called skywave or "skip" propagation. Thus shortwave radio can be used for very long distance communication, in contrast to radio waves of higher frequency which travel in straight lines (line-of-sight propagation) and are limited by the visual horizon"
So your Grans shortwave radio works the same as my HF set; just lacking the ability to transmit.
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captain
Senior Member
Posts: 144
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Post by captain on Jun 7, 2020 11:22:08 GMT 10
A copper wire loop is always good for enhancing reception coverage of hf or shortwave transmissions. If possible, create a big loop around your roof and connect it back to the radio and that will greatly assist. If not you roof, then on a tall tree.
Again, take advantage of the resources we have available, ie google, and do a search. I didn’t have such facilities when I was a kid with my grandfathers old valve shortwave radio so I experimented, went to the library and read up - but after a few experiments, and depending on time of day and weather, I was easily able to receive plenty. So read and experiment - it’s how we learn.
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