Radio Shack DX394 antenna help!
Alien
Recently I purchased a Radio Shack DX394 shortwave reciever. I have a 30
foot long wire antenna fed midway from a tree to the top of my trailer and
fed into the shortwave reciever. This antenna picks up fairly well and a
good bit better than the whip antenna. What I am interested in is a
directional antenna for inside my room. I live in a trailer park and my
neibors are already complaining about my long wire. I think they will not
say much more about it but I dont want to risk putting up any more external
antennas. Do any of you know of any resnobly priced, high gain, inside
antennas that work well for shortwave? I am interested in the MW and SW
bands.
Thanks for all of the help.
Floie Barrows
Early this year I bought a DX394 and a Radio Shack Amplified Shortwave
Antenna for use indoors. By coincidence, I also live in a mobil home
park. The antenna works about as well as my long wire which runs the
length of the mobil home, about 68 feet. I'm on the California/Arizona
border about 100 miles north of Mexico. I get good reception from
just about everywhere except the Indian Ocean, East Africa, and India
itself. It's also effective used as a preselector for the long wire.
Hope this helps a little.
--
Floie Barrows <blh...@telis.org>
Blythe, CA 92225
paradise on the Colorado River
Mike Stanton
I would like to offer this bit of advice. I also own this radio which I
like fine by the way..I know it
is not well received by the SW snobs, but it is good for what it is.
I have found that the built in RF amp is fine for broadcasts and
continental US broadcasts without
any help at all as far as external antennas. In fact, if you hook it up to
an efficient antenna it may actually
overload the darn thing..
This is what I plan on doing....(no I have not yet done it)
Yes I know about neighbors...My house is for sale and I dont want
any strange looking wires protruding...
If you read periodicals very often you will see a device in there that
looks like a big
donut with a tuning knob in the middle...The advertisements say ...no
connection to
your radio required....They are right. Those antennas are simply large
tuned circuits/antennas
just like is found in all AM radios...ie ferrite bar.....
So...what I want to do is build a large loop antenna perhaps like picture
frame size, and use
variable capacitor to resonate...with actual connection to the DX-394...
If you will contact
me I will tell you how it works out
Alien <ufot...@ix.netcom.com> wrote in article
<01bc9784$f5e2f3e0$5f76d9ce@default>...
Daniel Perez
In article <01bc9784$f5e2f3e0$5f76d9ce@default>, "Alien"
<ufot...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>Recently I purchased a Radio Shack DX394 shortwave reciever. I have a 30
>foot long wire antenna fed midway from a tree to the top of my trailer and
>fed into the shortwave reciever. This antenna picks up fairly well and a
>good bit better than the whip antenna. What I am interested in is a
>directional antenna for inside my room. I live in a trailer park and my
>neibors are already complaining about my long wire. I think they will not
>say much more about it but I dont want to risk putting up any more external
>antennas. Do any of you know of any resnobly priced, high gain, inside
>antennas that work well for shortwave? I am interested in the MW and SW
>bands.
You could try getting the Kiwi Loop Wire at the C. Crane Company. Their
website is;
Just look inside the Products Section under Antennas for radios.
The antenna costs about $128 but in your case it would probably we worth
it to avoid the compaints from your neighbors about the long wire. The
Kiwi Loop (according to C. Crane's catalog) has a broadband amplifier to
boost the signal. You'll have to specify what kind of a radio you have so
they can put on the proper attachments.
BTW, I've purchased a Sangean ATS 606. According to the "Passport to
World Band Radio" book, it's one of their top choices for 1997.
The DX394 must be a newer version of the DX390 or somewhat different.
The DX390 is made by Sangean which is also known as a Sangean ATS 818
>
>Thanks for all of the help.
No problemo.
Yours truly,
Daniel Perez - author of Terminator 3: Armageddon
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Michael Brandon
Daniel Perez wrote:
> You could try getting the Kiwi Loop Wire at the C. Crane Company. Their
^^^^^^^^^
...
> it to avoid the compaints from your neighbors about the long wire. The
> Kiwi Loop (according to C. Crane's catalog) has a broadband amplifier to
^^^^^^^^^
An impressive manoeuvre for a flightless bird 8-)
Cheerio, Michael
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DISCLAIMER - Material and opinions contained within are
solely those of the author and do not necessarily
represent in whole or in part the position of the RTA
Daniel Grunberg
Daniel Perez (t3armaged...@usa.net) writes:
> In article <01bc9784$f5e2f3e0$5f76d9ce@default>, "Alien"
> <ufot...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>
>>Recently I purchased a Radio Shack DX394 shortwave reciever. I have a 30
>>foot long wire antenna fed midway from a tree to the top of my trailer and
>>fed into the shortwave reciever. This antenna picks up fairly well and a
>>good bit better than the whip antenna. What I am interested in is a
>>directional antenna for inside my room. I live in a trailer park and my
>>neibors are already complaining about my long wire. I think they will not
>>say much more about it but I dont want to risk putting up any more external
>>antennas. Do any of you know of any resnobly priced, high gain, inside
>>antennas that work well for shortwave? I am interested in the MW and SW
>>bands.
>
> You could try getting the Kiwi Loop Wire at the C. Crane Company. Their
> website is;
>
> http://www.ccrane.com/
>
> Just look inside the Products Section under Antennas for radios.
>
> The antenna costs about $128 but in your case it would probably we worth
> it to avoid the compaints from your neighbors about the long wire. The
> Kiwi Loop (according to C. Crane's catalog) has a broadband amplifier to
> boost the signal. You'll have to specify what kind of a radio you have so
> they can put on the proper attachments.
>
> BTW, I've purchased a Sangean ATS 606. According to the "Passport to
> World Band Radio" book, it's one of their top choices for 1997.
>
> The DX394 must be a newer version of the DX390 or somewhat different.
> The DX390 is made by Sangean which is also known as a Sangean ATS 818
>
>>
>>Thanks for all of the help.
>
> No problemo.
As I recall, trailers (the original poster said he lived in a trailer
park, so I assume that his room is in a trailer) have metal bodies. I
assume that for safety's sake a trailer's body would be grounded. The
grounded metal body probably will shield any indoor antenna, making
reception poor at best. It seems to me that an outdoor antenna would be
best. IMHO, you should try to keep the wire antenna. If that's
impossible, consider trying a whip antenna mounted on the OUTSIDE of your
trailer. BTW, using an amplifier to boost the antenna's signal probably
won't help, because the signal and thenoise will be amplified equally.
The signal to noise ratio will remain the same, and readability will not
be improved.
--
Daniel A. Grunberg Kensington, Maryland USA
My home page's URL is <http://www.nyx.net/~dgrunber/>
Elmer D. Escoto
I don't know if you have enough space to try this, but I've used this
approach for about two months now, and it gives me good results:
Take a piece of coaxial cable (I used RG-8 because it's stronger to the
elements), stripe the insulation from the ends, solder the PL-259
connector (Radio Shack should have it cheap) on one end BUT DO NOT
CONNECT THE SHIELDING BRAID TO THE CONNECTOR. This end goes to the radio.
Now, on the other end (the far end from the receiver), short the inner
conductor with the braid, seal against the elements, and hang it to a
tree, pole, etc.
Plug the other end into the receiver, with a good ground connection. You
will note that this antenna is good and cheap.
Of course, if you don't care about the buck, go for some of the commercial
stuff.
Elmer David Escoto Romero
San Pedro Sula, HONDURAS
Tel. (504)54-1144, 54-1173
FAX (504)54-1154
mailto:ees...@simon.intertel.hn
--------------------------------
AER-V No. HR-5029V
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