I had some time today at the new house so I played with the reception hoping to improve it.
No luck , the only stations I can pick up crap on all day and dont play music .
So my next plan is to make a large loop out of copper and give that a go.
Heartbreaking really , I have some great radiograms and all I can pick up is boring chatter on AM .
Pete

ABC FM carries on until about 11am & then gets the citycentric who have little insight into anything rural. Then you have 2AY relaying people like Neil Mitchell who remains blissfully unaware that rural Victoria exists the North side of "Pretty Sally" & country voices are rarely heard, nor is anything much relevant to them. RN is a waste of a perfectly good transmitter, electricity & sheep paddock.

The long wire that picked up Sydney quite well from the other workshop was 66 feet long and running East West, not broadside to it. The current long wire is around 25 degrees East of Grid North (Magnetic around 13 degrees) & Sydney would be at around 65 degrees grid to you. Proximity to hills may be an issue. We have never been able to get WA stations here: Granite hill.

Loop might be selective enough? 2AY starts fading in and out here late afternoon.

If you would like some not so great radiograms, I need to de-clutter.

Marcc,
What type of wire are you using ?
Height? Pete

Hi Pete:

Good advice here:

http://www.iw5edi.com/ham-radio/?instructions-for-putting-up-a-long-wire-antenna,116

Re what wire, it doesn't matter much but you need to be able to solder to it and it needs to be strong enough to support high winds, possums and large birds. Bare fencing wire will work and is strong and cheap.

How high? The higher the better within reason, there is a law of diminishing returns though. You won't achieve anything by having it any higher than its length.

What should its length be? Depends on the frequency of interest, one quarter of the wavelength is best. AM transmitter towers are generally one quarter wavelength high.

OK assume you are trying for 2CH. 64 metres is close enough to quarter wavelength. This is not critical, reception ether side will still be good. Now I know you have a big backyard, but it's not that big! So next best is 32 metres. I don't think bending it back around to get the 64 metres in will be effective.

You need insulators for each end. "Eggs" are traditional but if you have a couple of vintage telephone insulators they will work just fine.

Don't want to scare you, but lightning arresters are not a bad idea, or a knife switch to ground your antenna in a thunderstorm.

Don't expect miracles in the day-time Pete. If this antenna doesn't pick it up out of the noise, nothing will.

Rosemary and I were sitting in the car on the dock in Launceston recently, at about 9PM, waiting for the ferry and worrying about the bushfires blocking the freeway the next day. We could pick up ALL Sydney AM stations on the car radio no trouble at all to get the latest road closure info.

Hello Ian ! Thanks Ian , that info should cover it.
I will try to make an antenna and if its no good I will feed a computer into it.
I have had a listen to the online apps .
I went to this market today that I will have to take you and Rosemary too.
The food and wine is local with music there in an Art type place down by the river. Its up market type food and wine maket.
Good place to be , pete

Hey, I didn't suggest this, but if that antenna doesn't work to pick up an AM station that's worth listening to, you could connect that transmitter I gave you to it, connect it to the computer and let your neighbours in Albury in on the deal!

One does not need to go berserk & spent lots of dollars on over priced rubbish for long wires, if you are rural.

The poles here a treated pine fence stays & you can get longer. All insulators are electric fence ones good for 10KV+ The wire is 2.5mm fencing wire and the line tap is another electric fence one. Price not shocking.

Brad has posted a photo of my tensioner in 2XL post, which involves clothesline wire, a blind pulley & two window sash weights (salvage). Funny sky colour is bushfire smoke.

There is enough wire in the tensioner to allow considerable movement when its hit by a UFO, or a limb bounces off it and destabilises the resident possums as they have weight..

Good luck getting 2CH - should not be an issue at night, but you'll need luck on your side during the day.

Or, as Ian says, use the computer.

I've used many miscellaneous things as antennas over the years - a longwire might not be necessary. I've used a metal flyscreen, a gutter, a galvanised iron roof, a metal shed, a garage door - any big hunk of metal should do the job.

If I could pick up 2cA thats ok.
Its about 300klm from here .I think that's possible.
I had a look at running a long wire and I see issues.
The house is set high up on a hill and then back yard runs down hill with no where to mount the wire end.
But I have a antenna mount on the roof and I could easy place a loop on a high pole in a very high position .
Does anybody know the optimum diameter for a large copper loop??
Should the loop be tunable with a Gang cap?
Thanks all ,pete

Which area of Albury are you in. The previous 50m antenna I had was going downhill at 1:70 158m AMSL

If you have neighbours a pole may run foul of building regs (don't have that issue here) At one point there were around 17 here with wires carrying RF, LV & EHT.

Never really seen a diameter limit but I have used ribbon wire: Tunable can be done: One could copy the aerial tuner idea off of the Yeasu 7700 its quite effective on the long wire.

Mine may be considered rough & primitive but they work. N.B. they are electric fences.

Marc

Marcc,
Can a loop be square and made out of copper??
Because in my junk I have 4 copper pipes ,1.5 metre each which would make a large copper square loop and be mounted on a long high pole on the roof..
Im in north albury high up on the hill .
Pete

I think the reason they maybe round is due to joins? Which maybe points of noise? But I'm guessing

If you make a square that will, I would suggest become a "rhombic" antenna in itself. Might have to have a look in the ARRL Handbook of which I seem to have accumulated at least 3: Later.

There tends to a large amount of granite between you & Canberra.

Do think on upvc: A series of T bars can have slight slots cut in to hold a wire spacing. I do have a coil of 1.8mm copper wire (birds) and if you wish to go from the sublime to the ridiculous, several hundred metres of high tensile power line, as we dismantled a private line here.

Marc

ARRL Is more interested in transmitting. There was something in a Silicon Chip mag & I am sure that over the years I have seen the info on loops & as noted built a couple.

Now: The copper pipe is in two forms & the household stuff in town is half inch ID if its Imperial and Metric is measured on the outside; And confusion reigns supreme if it's plastic. Farm works differently: One line is 130m of 2" Poly another almost 500m of 1 1/4" Poly.

Annealed copper is probably what you have and it is not usually bent. Originally that stuff would have elbows & such soldered on. Still phishing may be something in "Radio Waves"?.

Marc

I am thinking about beefing up my longwire as the recent hail storm brought it down. Fencing wire here I come.

Copper winding wire is grossly unsuited for a Beverage, or any other long wire antenna. As it is soft & stretches. The copper type power line I have for around a 80m span is an alloy with a high tensile steel core. It never broke in 50+ years.

Both the 50m and shorter one plus the 70m were hit by hail that big, with zero damage, so I am confident in my design. I use the Porcelain insulators and there is a right & wrong ways to tie off those "egg" insulators so they don't flex & break when using fencing wire. My usual spacing for a 50m antenna length would be a bit over 25m. So the new one has three individual poles.

Source: Purveyors of Rural merchandise. Pulley / Halyard they may also have. Several Government departments employ dead weights.