The Traditional Long-Wire

We are on a shaky ground here. Rain forests have been made into paper to print the endless hallowed textbooks on the subject so we don't feel we should add to the debate. They are on the shelf above me now, layered in dust just like the writer...

Your first point of reference is The Manual that came with the set. Have a read. The antenna stages of your radio will exhibit some kind of electrical characteristic. This is a Complex Impedance, usually edited down to "impedance" - the resistance offered to the radio signal at the frequency you are listening to - for the sake of common usage. If you follow the suggested designs in the instruction manual, then the burden of thought rests with the set maker and the aerial will be a good match. This has little to do with dating agencies - our "good match" is the best transfer of energy from the aerial to the radio that is all we are trying to achieve. This can also be done without the slightest knowledge of the radio's input impedance, offering more reassurance to the beginner.

You will note the writer can't make up his mind on what term to use, "antenna" or "aerial." They are interchangeable - your commentator being a dear old-fashioned thing trying to make a point and a living. But from this? Current designers working in the white heat of new technology do seem to loose touch with the fact that the basic physics remain the same, only the "top layer" of jargon follows fashion. If you have read thus far, you belong to a select few who understand that marketing and brand-image still can't get over the physics of radio, no matter how big the budget.

The Traditional Long-Wire Antenna, as its name implies, is a simple single length of wire of a thickness strong enough to support its own weight, insulated or not, as long and high as the local geography allows. Technocrats will call this an "Inverted L" as the longer limb of the capital letter L is the bit that runs down the garden, the shorter limb swinging down to form the downlead to the radio. Technophobes will say it is easy to put up. Simply use insulators at each of the three points of the L and you are away. If you feel this prose is labouring toward a "what the 'L" punchline, then there it is, with all the feeling of inevitability...

Try to form the aerial and downlead in a single unbroken length of wire. This will avoid making connections outside and the possible future effects of corrosion affecting reception. If you are out in the country, a long wire can be very long offering some advantages at lower frequencies.

Keep it away from any overhead powerlines as their throbbing 11,000 volts will do little for the radio or your hairstyle. They are also the transmitters of electrical noise at the very frequencies you thought you were gaining some advantage by "going for the big one."

Life is like that.

Connect all long-wires great or small to the correct point on the back of the radio. While you are there you may see a large coaxial connector. This is for specialist antennas that achieve resonance - that is, a maximum efficiency at a single or narrow range of frequencies - a characteristic of them being a low impedance that may be carried by coax cable.

The advantage of a coax feed is the screening effect the cable has against localised interference, no special care has to be taken in the handling of the cable and, provided some effort has been made to "match" the coax at both ends, then the antennas can be remotely sited away from noise sources. Our traditional long-wire will also be a low impedance at some frequencies so don't hesitate to experiment. You can calculate at what frequencies this will happen if you feel the need to. We prefer the "suck it and see" method as no amount of sums can argue with a higher signal meter reading...

An aside: Readers of the previous editions will note that so far we have stayed out of The Snug Bar of our village inn, The Duck and Fruitbat, a tribute to a great radio voice here in the UK who got your scribe "shambling around in the early bright" most mornings on BBC Radio Two's Early Show, the much missed Ray Moore. Radio DJ's are only special to their local audiences, Ray's name will mean little to this WWW readership. Every reader will have a radio name they grew up with. We need you now, John Peel...

The Snug is a place we went to hide from Management (the wife, that is), life in general, a place for the quiet contemplation of our hobby's technical issues. We can hide no longer.