Shortwave radio in the shop

[J Richardson]

Hi,

In my quest to complete my shop before winter, I need to set up an antenna and ground for some shortwave listening. Before sheeting the walls, I ran a wire outside for a future longwire connection. But, as I'm getting closer to sheeting the ceiling, I was wondering if I couldn't staple my antenna to the top of the roof trusses, and not have to worry about snow, ice etc. Anyone have some basic lengths and/or configuations that might work? The garage is 24x32, with the 24 foot length being the same as the truss peak. Also, does the wire have to be bare, or can I pick up a spool of #14 and use that? Haven't done this since I was a kid, and the memory is a little rusty.

Thanks,
John

[darryl]

The wire does not have to be bare, except for where you make a connection to it. Where you run the wire is going to make a lot of difference. You would very likely find that if you run it around inside the shop, it will pick up so much interference that it would be a wasted effort. Ideally, you run it away from power lines, and of course you orient it for best reception. This is my opinion only, but I think that if you run it around inside the building, or up on the rafters, etc, you won't be happy with the results.

[JoeLee]

Run the antenna outside and as far away from the shop as possible, and use good feed line with about 99.9% shielding, not the crap shack stuff with two strands of wire that they call braid.

Antennas in close prox. to machines, phase converters, flourescent lights, etc. will result in poor reception and a lot of noise.

JL.....................

[The Artful Bodger]

I would put a wire in the roof space like you say, it will probably work unless you have a metal roof in which case it might work.

There are huge books on the theory of antennas and no doubt there are people on here who have read them all but in my experience just putting a wire up is always better than nothing!

If the roof space does not give satisfaction you can think of the outside wire then.

[MichaelP]

As long as you're not going to transmit, you can use a random length of wire in your attic. In general, the longer your wire will be, the better reception you can expect (for both, radio stations and interferences that, as mentioned above, you'll have a plenty of).

Running a long wire (or any other antenna) outside will, generally, provide a much better reception and less RFI. But then you'll need to deal with anchor points, isolators, weather elements, etc.

What you can do is install an attic antenna for now and prepare whatever you'll need for an external one if you ever want it. When I was involved in shortwave radio operation, I simply put a large diameter PVC pipe through the wall and ran all my coaxial cables and ground through the pipe. So I really didn't need any special preparation during my home construction.

[darryl]

I suppose it can boil down to 'if it works to your satisfaction, use it'. No harm in running the wire inside as you wondered about. If it doesn't work well enough, just don't use it.

What kind of roof will there be? If metal, it's quite possible that a simple connection to the roof will bring in a good enough signal. Not saying it will work, just that it might. In any event, you would be well advised to look into lightning protection. Wouldn't be so bad to lose a radio to lightning, but if you have invited lightning into your shop by some means, such as an outside antenna, it could be you getting the jolt-

[wb2vsj]

Run the antenna outside and as far away from the shop as possible, and use good feed line with about 99.9% shielding, not the crap shack stuff with two strands of wire that they call braid.

Antennas in close prox. to machines, phase converters, flourescent lights, etc. will result in poor reception and a lot of noise.

JL.....................

Agreed! Get it as far away from the shop as possible if you can. The attic is just as bad. You won't believe the amount of electrical noise a house/shop can generate. I've been a Ham Radio operator for 30+ years and have experienced i.e. (been plagued by) all type sof man-made noise. Just try and tell the neighbor that his electric blanket is screwing up your reception

Out of curiosity, what type of SW receiver will you be using? I have an old Hallicrafters SX-62A in my shop that I use.

Walt
WB2VSJ
Apex, NC

[J Tiers]

With the electrical noise in the shop, I bet your inside antenna won't work well unless the radio is rather selective, and the EMI is minimal.

However, on a functional basis, attic antennas are fine.

In fact, our house, which was built in 1934, has two outlets which are FOR radios, one downstairs and one up...... In each, one half is a 120V 2 prong, and the other is a connection to antenna and ground. NOT via a standard plug, of course, something between a banana plug and a "phono tip".

I do have some shortwave radios, but none is in a place to use the built-in plugs. The builders evidently had different ideas of interior layout than we do.

[The Artful Bodger]

It is hard to predict the electrical noise in the shop without knowing more about what will be in there.

You can be assured that the radio will jump out of its skin if there is any welding going on and maybe if using any high speed brushed motors such as drills and routers but even most of these are electrically quiet.

I would not expect much noise from anything with a synchronous motor even if you are running off a rotary phase converter.

Modern electronics including VFDs should be electrically quiet.

[J Tiers]

Modern electronics including VFDs should be electrically quiet.

And they are.... "quiet" is defined as "less than "X" amount of noise......... The problem is that "X" amount is typically a lot bigger than the signal from someplace in South America, etc, etc.

[JoeLee]

Agreed! Get it as far away from the shop as possible if you can. The attic is just as bad. You won't believe the amount of electrical noise a house/shop can generate. I've been a Ham Radio operator for 30+ years and have experienced i.e. (been plagued by) all type sof man-made noise. Just try and tell the neighbor that his electric blanket is screwing up your reception

Out of curiosity, what type of SW receiver will you be using? I have an old Hallicrafters SX-62A in my shop that I use.

Walt
WB2VSJ
Apex, NC

See..... it takes another ham to agree with me. Believe us when we tell you..... we are speaking from experience.

JL.............

[dp]

A decent ground level antenna can be built from a large glass 7-Up bottle (Coke/Pepsi will work too ) and three or four 10' sections of TV mast stacked on the neck of the pop bottle. Use nylon line clamped midway up the topmost section. Use a good stainless hose clamp. Tie off the lines where ever convenient.

For transmitting you'd use a good neon sign insulated HV wire, but anything will work for receiving. Run what ever wire you have to your receiver.

And just for kicks, build one of these to tune it: http://www.qrpkits.com/altoidslongwire.html. It is feed with 50 ohm coax cable.

A coupler like this needs a good ground at the coupler. If you don't use a couple you'll need a good ground at the receiver and that's usually more difficult. Long wire antenna can have pretty low impedance and anything that creates impedance in the ground circuit is going to create noise.

Spark arrestors are a good idea if you're in an area prone to lightning. This page has some useful ideas:

http://www.techlib.com/electronics/antennas.html

[Dragons_fire]

unless youre using earphones, youre not going to be able to hear the radio over any of the tools anyways. It they have a big enough electric motor on them to cause enough interference, they are going to be loud enough that you wont be able to hear it.

[The Artful Bodger]

There are Hams, SWLs and people who just like to listen to some shortwave broadcaster beaming to their region.

The opening post did not give the impression of being from a Ham or SWL which leaves the shortwave broadcast listener.

My advice remains the same, put a wire in the roof space and see how it goes.

[J Richardson]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies. I think I'll run a wire outside. Sounds like the best way to go. I've got an old Hallicrafters American five tube that I need to finish recapping. Also need to get my childhood Stewart Warner up and going again. Neither radio is much, but it's something to listen to. Love the sight and smell of tubes in the dark!

John