Antenna + Ground
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- čas přidán 28. 08. 2024
- The Tecsun PL-990 receives longwave much better with an external antenna plus ground than it does with just the antenna or with the internal ferrite antenna.
Here we see the PL-990 receiving the Culpeper Virginia Regional Airport non-directional beacon on 315 kHz comparing internal antenna, external antenna and antenna + ground.
For the text version of this article, see www.blogordie....
Excellent. You have answered a question that I have wondered about. I have a Tecsun 880. Now I will incorporate a ground. Thank You Very Much.
The external antenna jack on the PL-880 doesn't work with MW or LW, but you might get a boost on SW. Dunno.
@@kwdavids1 Correct. LW is mostly empty and I listened to all the MW that I wanted to before FM Radio got popular. After all, it's just regular radio, to me.
@@kwdavids1 Yes I know. Might help on SW though. I'll try that. Thank you
I have the PL330, PL600 and PL660.
I have never added a ground before but definitely will add a ground rod and test it out now. Thank you!
The PL-660 (and probably the PL-600) do not use the external antenna for MW and LW, so you might not get any improvement. The PL-330, however, has a hidden feature to use the external antenna jack for MW and LW, and you will find that a wire antenna and ground helps.
@kwdavids1 thank you for that info. I was looking at the PL680 bit maybe should just get the PL880.
@@DonzLockz The PL-880 doesn't officially work with an external antenna on MW/LW either. There is supposedly a hidden feature to use it, but the process of starting it is very complicated and it drops out in normal operation of the radio. I'd call it unusable, plus it doesn't seem to work on the latest firmware.
Usually external antennas are magnetically coupled to radios for LW/MW, products like the Tecsun AN-100 or the Terk -- but I don't know if they work on LW. When the snow clears I'm going to experiment with wrapping wire from the antenna around the radio to see how that works.
Nice demo. Thanks for sharing. I have used my Sony ICF-SW7600 in a similar fashion with an external antenna and ground, with good results. Another thing worth trying would be to use a 9:1 impedance matching transformer like the Nooelec Balun One Nine. Although the radio itself wouldn't be grounded, the matching transformer would enable the antenna to "work against" the ground to induce a stronger signal into the antenna winding of the matching transformer, and then provide a good signal into the receiver winding of the transformer. This could potentially be helpful in reducing local noise. Again, thanks for the video.
I'm very attracted to the PL-990 - but I wish it had onboard recording to SD card. Thanks for this video!
I had the Lafayette just like that. That's how I got started with ham radio.
My Hustler 6-BTV is not a particularly good receiving antenna, though it is a MONSTER of a transmitting antenna. That having been said, I can tune my HF rig down into the broadcast band and CLEARLY receive an AM station 120 miles away with it that I cannot receive at all with one hundred feet of wire AND an eight foot ground rod on my old Hallicrafters S-40B. I have 32 radials that are each 16 feet in length buried an inch to an inch and a half in a circle around the radiating element, so my radial field is four wavelengths on the lowest frequency I generally use, which is the forty meter band.
All that to say, instead of just using an eight foot ground rod or a cold water pipe, and IF you have the real estate for it, a good radial field below your receiver could help tremendously with your reception.
Great video, and you make a great point. The extendable element is only HALF the antenna. Reception will always be improved by incorporating a grounded element. Thanks so much for sharing this video!
K5SFC
Old radios used to have one plug for the aerial antenna and another plug for the ground antenna
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I'm glad it worked for you!
@kwdavids1
Thank you for raising awareness of the importance of grounding to antenna 📡 performance. This is something I'd forgotten.
I've got a Tecsun PL-880 too, as well as several other SW receivers. Looks like it's soldering time!
Va sir .
Thanks for sharing ❤📡💤🦅📻
Blog or die I wish you and happy new year 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
Blog or die this interesting information about antenna + Grund is awesome my friend 😊
Very interesting, I’ll have to try a ground wire myself and see what the difference is. I know blog or die from Gilles SWListening youtube channel, see your name pop up often on the chat. Looks like you have a pretty good channel here yourself so I subscribed and liked 😊
Primarily I'm a blogger at BlogOrDie.com and the videos supplement that content.
Blog or die your utube videos are awesome my friend
Very very nice!
Nice to see
Fascinating!
From Amazon $12.99. I use this for my Tecsun 880 and it's perfect and has a second connection for a ground wire.
AEcreative 3.5mm Quick Connect solderless Antenna Plug for shortwave Radio Receiver Eton Grundig Tecsun Sangean Degen.
Ground FYI: Years ago I needed a ground for something. I took a 3 prong plug but only wired the Ground prong. This way i can get a ground by plugging it into a 3 wire electrical outlet and just use the ground part of it. Yes, there likely is some "noise" pick up from doing it this way, but it is a valid ground connection, if you have no other convenient way to get one.
That is very interesting. Have you attempted using this technique with MW and SW reception? I am going to give this shot.
I have tried a 20-ft wire + ground on MW with my PL-990 and increased the number of daytime stations received from 16 to 70.
@gary it works on both mw and sw. this “hack” it actually isn’t new, it is very overlooked.
This video is a wonderful reminder.
Thanks Kevin
This is informative
I wish you showed
The grounding wire
To see the way
Thanks 🙏🏼
Refer to this for more on connecting the ground. www.blogordie.com/2023/12/antenna-ground/#construction
Ground wave/air wave. In radio 101 classes..the radio wave travels under earth. And we have taken advantage of sutch.
Does this only work on stations received via groundwave or did you notice an improvement on skywave signals as well?
I've always felt that the "ground" connection was a good idea, but as you say, most of today's radios don't make it "Easy" to do it!
Maybe someone on E-bay will start selling an adapter that plugs into your portable receiver and makes it easier to "ground" your set!
I would have tried connecting the red wire to ground to see what would happen, Great video I love longwave, dx and Tecsun radios.
Actually, I did but it didn't do anything interesting.
Thanks for the video! I am still learning about sw listening with my tecsun pl 330, I am at the "throw a wire in a tree" phase.
Can you explain how that ground you are showing is built? Is it just "another wire" from the main wire to the ground, are there specific points to attach it?
Refer to this for more on connecting the ground. www.blogordie.com/2023/12/antenna-ground/#construction
Thank you!
I have very high ground conductivity where I live so I can just couple a ferrite bar by setting the radio close to the ground for 1000kHz and below.
hi, will it make an even better difference if the ground wire was even longer?, I see you made the ground join the wire antenna , is it possible to leave those two wires in different directions, and add a ground clipped at the base of the 2 antenna wires close to the radio with a clipp?
Hurray! You have long wave after all! Actually 48 miles is pretty impressive. I sit less than one quarter the distance to DCA (Washington Natl AP ) and DA (Davison Airfield) and I don't think I would get them 20 miles out.
Thanks for pointing that out/
what is the hidden feature for ground on the 33n? Using headphone sleeve for gnd?
The Tecsun PL-330 has an external antenna jack, so the ground is the sleeve on that jack. The hidden feature is a long press of the "3" button when the radio is on.
I've wondered the same thing. It would be Interesting to build a simple ground tuning unit (series variable LC circuit) to see how that affects the receive performance. I have one half built for mobile ham radio operation, I need to finish it off. Y
The ground antenna effect is noticeable in AM
Wow, what a huge difference with ANT and GND, who knew?
Ground will make a difference on L.F. But not much as you go higher.
Could you please do a video on your external antenna setup showing the antenna and ground. Athough there is virtually nothing worthwhile left to listen to, I still occasionally get the urge to scan like the old days. I've never had an external antenna because I don't know what needs to be done to avoid lightning strikes.
I just have a 20-foot length of #22 wire about 10 feet up a tree connected to an insulator screwed into the tree. The wire slopes down to a table where a rock keeps it from slipping. I have an 8-foot commercial copper ground rod (hardware store) driven about three feet(?) into the ground. It has some lamp cord that runs to the same rock. There's not much for a video.
@@kwdavids1 Thanks for clarifying.
Refer to this for more on connecting the ground. www.blogordie.com/2023/12/antenna-ground/#construction
The antenna line and the ground line are connected together to the radio external jack?
The antenna plug has a tip and a shield. The long wire is connected to the tip, and ground is connected to the shield. If that's not clear, look at the diagrams in my article: www.blogordie.com/2023/12/antenna-ground/
@@kwdavids1 Now it's clear 🙂 Good article.
Blog or die my hobbies are painting pictures and listening to shortwave and ssb iam thinking about getting my ham license
you sound quite well versed on radio so apologies if you already no this : these are called NDB's Non directional beacons, they broadcast a lot on LW, at night time you should pick up some between the end of th LW band and the start of the MW band they are used to keep ships and planes in position so they dont vere of course..they all broadcast a morse code an you can pinpoint where they are located by looking on the web and entering the 3 letter code.
...and this, of course, should not have been any source of surprise. I can't imagine why you haven't opened the backs of your receivers to add a ground binding post. After all... all radio is referenced to earth ground.
Or are you really just a casual listener?
I don't modify my radios.
@@kwdavids1 Sad. 8(
@@kwdavids1 yeah turns em to junk for a very niche purpose and also makes you look very autistic and unaware. I can just smell this guy and his messy house upon which he litters his butchered radios.
My 53 Trans-Oceanic is still good for short wave! Get off China radios!!!
A 1953 Trans-Oceanic is not something I'd try to pack in a suitcase.
Does the ground wire connect directly to one antenna wire within the insulation or does the antenna wire have two parts that need to be separated like coax and the ground connected to one of the two?
The cable I use is shielded audio cable with a interior conductor and a spiral twisted shield I connect the antenna to the central wire and the ground to the shield. At the radio end, the phone plug is wired in the usual way with the tip connected to the center wire and the shield connected to the ground.
@@kwdavids1 From Amazon $12.99. I use this for my Tecsun 880 and it's perfect and has a second connection for a ground wire.
AEcreative 3.5mm Quick Connect solderless Antenna Plug for shortwave Radio Receiver Eton Grundig Tecsun Sangean Degen.
Refer to this for more on connecting the ground. www.blogordie.com/2023/12/antenna-ground/#construction