Just About Anything Will Work . . .

And he is transmitting – not just receiving! For receiving? Virtually anything made of metal will do it – obviously some stuff will work better – some stuff not so good – so get out there and get to listening!

I always have one of these with me when I’m traveling – they actually work pretty good!

Have Fun! – Run the Gun! – and remember – Fish Heads are Cheap!!

Does All This “Stuff” REALLY Make a Difference? – MFJ-16010??

Working off of my random wire antenna this morning. And it is a good morning for it – very quiet conditions.

Here is what your seeing in the video – FEBC – Far East Broadcasting Company – 15620khz – pushing 100 kilowatts – not the brightest flashlight in the room – but a GOOD signal – dead on frequency with excellent modulation . . .

I can go at this explanation several ways but let’s try the K.I.S.S. way – Keep It Simple Stupid . . . ( and NO this is not a course in Radio 101 – this is just as bottom line simple as I can explain it! )

Although it was marketed as an antenna tuner for transmitting / receiving – by changing the impedance between the relative low impedance of a transmitter and the relative high impedance of a random wire antenna – guess what? It also improves that match for receiving signals as well. Because – what is radio? You hang a piece of metal out in the breeze and magnetic waves pass across it and induce an electric current in said piece of metal – meanwhile your radio is looking for a ( where ever you tuned it ) specific frequency of electrical energy to process with all its smoke and mirrors magic into sound that you can hear / listen to . . . ( yes i know that’s horribly simplistic – no hate – ok? )

Remember we are primarily focused on receiving! Watch the noise floor on the clip as I scroll back and forth on the capacitance knob – which is changing the impedance match between the radio and the antenna . . .

If you notice in the lower left corner of the clip – I have the gain on the SDR cranked all the way up – it is that quiet this morning . . .

So . . . the short answer – it does work on random wire antennas when you use it just to receive – and most of the reviews ( if you want to fall into a YouTube rabbit hole – say Hi to Alice while your there – at about 7:00 minutes into the clip ) will show it working on transmit AND receive. ( And if you want to watch the whole movie GO HERE )

I recommend stuff – because it works – and the MFJ-16010 actually helps with short wave listening when using random wire antennas – and for those who think I’m bad – a guy that is on the “net” traffic around 7.190mhz most mornings out of the Pacific North West is running on a 1200 ( yes – twelve hundred ) foot loop suspended 60 feet up in the air – I admit I’m impressed – and somewhat jealous. But really folks – it doesn’t take a lot – 30 foot – plus or minus – of 14 gauge stranded strung right – an LDG 9:1 Unun – proper grounding is critical – a halfway decent radio ( or SDR ) – the MFK-16010 in the mix can help – and you would be more than likely surprised at the stuff you can hear . . .

Have Fun! – Run the Gun! – and remember – Fish Heads are Cheap!!

Random Wire vs RF-PRO-1B Loop

Pretty decent conditions right now. If a random wire is what you want to use – go to DXEngineering and pick up the MFJ-16010 – put it inline with your coax going to your radio – assuming proper grounding – it will make a difference in what you are able to find and listen to . . . And I really wouldn’t wait too long to get one – MFJ is out of business and when they are gone – they are gone . . .

Here is a clip of Radio Free Asia / Burmese language broadcast – RFA website HERE / RFA WIKI page HERE . . .

I really need to figure out how to improve my audio/video capture – there is audio in here – you can just make it out sitting here – pay attention to the noise floor between this and the next clip . . .

This is with the RF-PRO-1B loop – less noise floor and the audio is better – at least sitting here – LOL!

No settings were changed on the SDR console software . . .

This is still the loop – brought the gain up to try and match the random wire noise floor – the audio obviously came up – but – so did the noise – so you end up with a tight wire balancing act sorta thing going on – you want to have enough signal to work with – but – you are also bringing up the noise floor . . .

Bruce – where do you find all this “stuff” – weird / strange / otherwise to listen to? – One very good resource is ShortwaveSchedule.com – top of the page – right side – under live stations, click on the show me tab – most ( not everything ) of the myriad of “stuff” being broadcast live at the time is listed – and the really cool part of an SDR? You can go through the bands and see what is active at the moment – “Stuff” THAT YOU CAN POSSIBLY HEAR!

Another great resource is Short-Wave.info – you can just enter the frequency you are on and up pops the station or stations broadcasting on the frequency – with a world map complete with gray line shown – you can even put your location in so you can fidget your antenna around to maybe help with signal strength or reduce noise.

And the radio that you’re using doesn’t care what the antenna is ( to a point ) until you get down in the VLF end – then the wire antenna starts to show it’s stuff. Look at the clips again – you are looking at a little slice of the radio spectrum and there’s 15 to 20 signals there to listen to – random wire or loop or the whip antenna on the radio – so get to listening!

Folks – there is a bunch of stuff below the AM broadcast band to find and listen to – 15 KHz earth sound things / 11-59 KHz submarine digital communications. Digital but often really loud. / 60 KHz WWVB (digital time/frequency)( your fancy “Atomic” clock or watch has to have something to set itself by ) / 160-200 European Longwave AM broadcast… can be heard in most of the U.S. – sometimes / 285-325 KHZ Differential GPS / 200-529 KHz Nondirectional air beacons (NDBs) / 472-478 Experimentally licensed hams on various modes. CW, PSK others / 506-7 KHz More ham / 518 Navtex ship weather beacons / 530 Highway Info stations . . .

And for as good as it is – the RF-PRO-1B and its “loopy” cousins really drop off when you get below the AM broadcast band – as great as any given antenna is, LOOP / WIRE / BEAM – WHATEVER – they all have their bright spots and their shortcomings.

Have Fun! – Run the Gun! – and remember – Fish Heads are Cheap!!

Random Wire Plan B Done! – Not quite as thrilling as the conclusion of “Plan 9 from Outer Space” – But It’s Done . . .

And it works for me!

Used the D ring that was on the side facing the tree not the shed – grand daughter didn’t want to hang off the side of the ladder to get to the shed side of the mast to add another D ring – I tried the old “no guts – no glory” thing with her – she asked if I was going to do it myself and that was a simple no – so we used the existing D ring and just came around the mast with the wire.

Used 2×4 blocking between the studs – secured with construction adhesive construction decking type screws – screwed to each other then in from the right side and toe nailed with 3 1/2 inch deck screws – don’t think the blocks will fall out – then smeared silicone on the 3 1/2 inch screws holding the mounts on – it’s quite stout . . .

This next pic gives you an idea of the bow I left in it – it was installed in full sunlight and it was warm out – so there should be enough bow at 29 below zero / 70 mph winds / 6 inches of snow per hour – or your typical winter day here – LMAO!

And there is the tree where Plan A was was originally going – which would have ended up at about 57 feet instead of the roughly 33 feet it ended up at . . .

That’s all well and good Bruce – but does it work? Yes it works quite well – here’s a couple of HAMS on 40 meters this morning – the second one is a mobile . . .

Dug the grundig satellit 800 out of storage to try the wire – it’s the only thing I’ve got with an SO239 connector on it. I’ve got some connectors / adapters coming and a switch or two so I will be able to go back and forth between the antennas without screwing/unscrewing coax – THAT is a pain!

The immediate take away?? Random wires work – they always have and they always will. There will always be noise issues with them – grounding is your number one tool in the box to fight noise . . .

The ground post on the Unun – which is common to the outside or shielding braid on the coax – goes to a #6 solid and down to a grounding rod . . .

That #6 solid grounds the Unun and coax sheilding – and rotator / mast assembly – the second clamp takes a #6 solid around to the entry box . . .

Where a second ground rod is in place where it helps equalize the electrical potential at both ends of the coax shielding – and a second #6 solid runs into the entrance box and . . .

Provides grounding for the surge protectors – and – a ground for the entrance end of the coax as well as surge protection for the rotator control cable and a #6 solid into the radio room for grounding of radios and equipment as well as one more grounding point for shielding on coax . . .

Here are 2 clips of Trenton VOLMET – roughly 1020 miles east – first one is the 800 on the wire antenna . . . ( you can read about VOLMET HERE )

This second one is the loop and SDR . . .

( i sure need to get better speakers for the computer )

Now this video has an almost too narrow a focus on transmitting as for what we are doing here – there are some good points made in it – what the 9:1 Unun does for receive is makes your random wire “sweeter” across more frequencies – your radio likes what it sees across the bands – remember your receiving not transmitting! . . .

So Bruce . . . is the wire antenna worth the effort for you? A.M. broadcast band – 540khz and up – won’t make a lot of difference – A loop will more likely out perform it and the wire antenna is generally a little noisier – BUT – when you start creeping around 25khz up to about 300khz it should out perform the loop. If you are not wanting to hear “stuff” in the basement so to speak – use a loop – BUT – if you want an inexpensive setup to hear “stuff ” – a wire antenna is hard to beat – BUT – ( you knew there was another one coming didn’t you? – LOL! ) if you want to go creeping through the weeds trying to find something really obscure ( and not EXTREMELY LOW frequency ) the loop and the Low Noise Amplifer is hard to beat – I can go back and forth like this all day – just saying . . .

I keep telling myself Short Wave Listening is only a hobby – it’s only a hobby – it’s only a hobby – after 61 years of it I have come to the conclusion that for me it “might” be a serious hobby – LMAO!

Have Fun! – Run the Gun! – and remember – Fish Heads are Cheap!!