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DIY Cheap AM/LW antenna

seattlesarchiebunker

seattlesarchiebunker

It occurred to me recently that i have on my property, a 300 yard walk down a trail to a small river. Yes, I use it for fishing or an excuse to drink beer on the water.

The more important question is how would an 1800’ longwire (900feet each way) facing south going through trees, brushes, etc perform over a standard Kaito loop. Will this be the antenna my Sony XDR F1HD needs to finally be a decent AM performer?

In terms of type of wire...I’m thinking thicker gauge speaker wire for cost. 500yd spools can be had for a song...

Thanks!
 
It may easily outperform a loop -- in the direction of the wire. 1800 feet is enough to be a small beverage. It will be directional in the direction of the wire.

I have DXed by placing my Sony ICF-38 alongside the metal rail of a 110 ft fence and saw good results, and what you are talking about is ten times longer.

Your Sony XDR should already be a hot performer. I have the boombox version of your radio and it outperforms a GE SR with just three feet of looped wire.

The DSP chips in a Sony XDR are excellent on MW.
 
If I remember my dipole formula correctly (468/(frequency in MHz)), it looks like 900' on a leg about twice as big as needs to be. Save some money and try about 500' on each leg first. Unless you have a thing for LW :)
 
You also have to consider overload / cross-modulation by strong AM stations. Plugging Lynnwood, WA into Radio-Locator.com shows a 5 KW AM at 4.5 miles and two 50 KW AM's at 11 miles. Not real close, but it could be a problem with that much antenna...
 
K6JHU said:
If I remember my dipole formula correctly (468/(frequency in MHz)), it looks like 900' on a leg about twice as big as needs to be. Save some money and try about 500' on each leg first. Unless you have a thing for LW :)
Click to expand...

A beverage antenna is sometimes called a "wavelength antenna" as they are best at one or more wavelength lengths. That means roughly 1600' at the bottom of the band and around 700 feet at 1600. So, for most AM DX, until you get around 1000 feet, they are just longwires, not beverage antennas. They will be directional off the ends, with the best directional performance at lengths approaching two wavelengths. It depending on whether one end is terminated with a resistance to ground.

There is a Wiki on them, and the National Radio Club publications center has a number of articles for purchase or download.
 
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