Antennas Revisited

Above me, I can see thirteen aerial reference books, most of them unread. The reason for this is practicality. The man who designs the estate has decreed that the smallest distance between two houses will be called "the garden" and a long-wire aerial stretched to that distance will not resonate at any frequency you want to listen to. That’s life.

In the end you put up piece of wire as long, as high and as neighbour-compatible as possible. You push the wire into the centre of the SO239 aerial socket and hope to hear something. You will, but it can be better.

Our AR7030 will take on the range of impedances and signal levels presented by the average garden long-wire and provide a much better match than using the SO 239, a co-ax connector strictly for 50 ohm resonant aerials. We use a carefully designed input transformer to get that match and provide a reassuring measure of static protection.

Long wires work best with a good earth connection. Traditionally, this was made to the rising water main but as so many repairs are now made with plastic fittings, it’s just not reliable any more. Try Dracula impressions by banging a metal stake into the garden and connecting to the radio ground point with the shortest possible length of heavy-duty wire.

Tidy the mains lead to the radio by winding as much of it as possible around a ferrite ring. This should raise the impedance enough to leave the mains noise behind and leave a clear path from aerial to earth.

Evenings on 7410, daytime on 11620 and check if the 10MHz Ham Band is open by checking for the Domestic Service on 10330. Listen for the evening ragas - long improvised sitar pieces. I can’t afford a full-size instrument, mine’s
a baby sitar…