Antenna projects to improve HD reception.

[KB1OKL]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutro_Tower

 

[kenglish]

Not quite sure what your link was meant to say........maybe that we all need a "Sutro Tower" in our yards? ;D

I thought maybe it was about receiving antennas. I've been "accumulating" some parts to try and build a home-brew AM BCB Loop antenna. I'm thinking something like, a piece of foamcore project board and a glue gun (from the local pharmacy), 100' of magnet wire (from Radio Shack), and a couple of pieces of aluminum foil (maybe from those one-pound Hershey bars I've been planning to eat) used as a tuning capacitor. Even 32 ounces of chocolate should be cheaper than a real variable-capacitor...as hard as they are to find nowadays.

As for FM, I think a $20 yagi is a good start.

 

[KB1OKL]

Not quite sure what your link was meant to say........maybe that we all need a "Sutro Tower" in our yards? ;D

I thought maybe it was about receiving antennas. I've been "accumulating" some parts to try and build a home-brew AM BCB Loop antenna. I'm thinking something like, a piece of foamcore project board and a glue gun (from the local pharmacy), 100' of magnet wire (from Radio Shack), and a couple of pieces of aluminum foil (maybe from those one-pound Hershey bars I've been planning to eat) used as a tuning capacitor. Even 32 ounces of chocolate should be cheaper than a real variable-capacitor...as hard as they are to find nowadays.

As for FM, I think a $20 yagi is a good start.

Yes, obviously it was a joke, but if you are really serious about long distance AM reception, try two long wire antennas, as long as you can get them and get a device called a phaser, this is much more effective than the large box loops of which I have built several in my time. With the phaser you can "steer" the two antennas much as you would turn a loop for directivity. You would most likely overload the front ends of these receivers though. You can still find 365 pf variable caps on ebay which are a lot better than building your own.
The NRC has some nice loop plans (National Radio Club)

 

[kenglish]

Good idea.

My idea was more of a "Gee-Whiz" sort of project, just to get people interested....like the Boy Scouts' type of projects. And, it was loosely based on the thing that TWR is doing for it's 800 KHz station at Bonaire. They printed (as in PC Board) tuned loops and added their logo and scheds on it. They say they can make 'em and mail 'em for under a buck!

The article was in a recent "Monitoring Times" or some similar magazine.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

My idea was more of a "Gee-Whiz" sort of project, just to get people interested....like the Boy Scouts' type of projects. And, it was loosely based on the thing that TWR is doing for it's 800 KHz station at

I finally found an application where monster cables finally do something more than carry electrons to speakers. I made an 8 foot tuned box loop antenna, incredible gain - even wideband enough for HD - and finally am able to get HD lock on KAAM, 8 miles away!

By the way, a ten foot version of this loop has enough gain to get daytime reception of a 10W TIS station 2000 miles away.

 

[KB1OKL]

My idea was more of a "Gee-Whiz" sort of project, just to get people interested....like the Boy Scouts' type of projects. And, it was loosely based on the thing that TWR is doing for it's 800 KHz station at

I finally found an application where monster cables finally do something more than carry electrons to speakers. I made an 8 foot tuned box loop antenna, incredible gain - even wideband enough for HD - and finally am able to get HD lock on KAAM, 8 miles away!

;D ;D ;D ;D

By the way, a ten foot version of this loop has enough gain to get daytime reception of a 10W TIS station 2000 miles away.

Did you really mean 2000 miles or 200? A ten ft loop is huge! I made a 4 footer that can be tilted for Azimuth that works pretty well from NRC plans. I made a spiral loop years ago that was extremely directional. I'd like to make another one of those. On the other hand I can phase out local stations with my 400' LW's so that they almost disappear, especially in the day time when skywave doesn't distort the pattern.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Did you really mean 2000 miles or 200? A ten ft loop is huge!

2000, not 200. I didn't build it - here is the link:

http://www.imagenisp.ca/jsm/loop.html

Based on the performance of my 8 foot loop, I have no doubt about his claim. His loop is not a true ten foot, either, it is octagonal which cuts down the area a bit.

 

[KB1OKL]

Oh yeah, I'v'e seen that and read about it before, didn't remember the details, long wave has much better ground wave than BCB, that is quite a feet though.