[Hallicrafters] antenna

Sun May 15 22:52:24 EDT 2005

Mike, 	

If you are suggesting that he use a rotary switch to allow one antenna to be
used with this assortment of receivers, perhaps you should factor in an
impedance matching device too? There will be a significant loss factor here
Mike. 	

None of what you suggested is going to save him, or the equipment, from a
lightning strike. Lightning takes the most conductive oppositely charged path to
ground. It is this exchange of oppositely charged electrons that creates the
lightning.	

I am not criticizing you Mike, just expanding on several points you made.
Perhaps you meant to suggest he protect the equipment from static discharge.
This is quite deadly to electronics and can be handled safely for a minimal
investment. Lightning protection is a different situation altogether and is
costly to do effectively.	

While a 'good' station ground is of vital importance, for many reasons, do 'NOT'
make the mistake that I made! 		

Yes you should disconnect all equipment from wall outlets. Which includes power
strips, even if they have "alleged' surge protection and/or circuit breakers.
This also includes all power supplies and isolation transformers. 	

Yes you should disconnect all feedlines going to outside the QTH antennas and
divert them to an earth ground.	

I use gas filled Poly Phaser units. If they are hit with an electrical discharge
the gas cartridge stops it. Although these are in line between the antenna and
the receiver, the RX should still be disconnected from the antenna wire, but
'AFTER' the Poly Phaser! 	

The indoor Ply Phaser units are also routed to an earth ground.   		

Depending on your financial play time resources, amount of real estate for
antennas, zoning or subdivision ordinances that affect errecting a tower or
putting up antennas, what you desire to listen to, what bands you desire to
listen on etc. You may get satisfactory results from an attic antenna
installation. I have often marveled at the HCI Web Master, KA1DGL, Fred Mooney,
who has an attic antenna system for multiple bands that simply blows my mind.
This contraption works incredibly well for both transmitting and receiving and
is certainly not a large investment. If you are interested, write to Fred and
try to convince him what a great favor he would be doing if he but shared his
secrets with a deserving soul like yourself. If that fails, buy him lunch, Fred
is a sucker for a good meal! That comes from over twenty years as a military
officer and way too many mess halls! (LOL)  

----------
From: Mike Everette <radiocompass at yahoo.com>
To: chandlerh2 at aol.com; hallicrafters at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Hallicrafters] antenna
Date: Sunday, May 15, 2005 1:08 PM

For general receiving I'd just put up a long wire, say
from the eave of the house to a convenient tree.  You
could put a rotary switch in the line to select which
radio you wish to use, and just feed each of them with
a single piece of wire.

Don't forget lightning protection.  The simplest is to
put a knife switch in the line -- OUTSIDE the house --
to disconnect the antenna from the radios and run it
straight to ground.  Always leave the antenna grounded
except when you are using the radios.

If you leave the antenna connected during a storm,
current can be induced into the wire from nearby
lightning -- enough to burn out an antenna coil.  It
does not need to be a direct strike.

BE CAREFUL with that S-22R (or any other radio with an
acey-deucey power supply)!!!

There are 3 capacitors in the S-22R, all 0.25uf,
between the chassis itself and the "electrical"
ground.  There is another, a 0.002 or 0.005 uf, from
the hot side of the line to the chassis.  BE SURE you
have changed all these and replaced all of them with
something rated for AC.  If you don't you are
GA-RON-TEED to get lit up (been there, done that, not
fun -- happened before I recapped the radio), and you
may not need a radio to listen to the celestial
voices.

Also be sure you either replace or remove altogether,
all the power line bypass caps in the
transformer-operated radios, or you may get lit up (or
at least tingle-ated) if you touch two of them at the
same time.  These old caps LEAK!  And in the SX-110,
get rid of that 470K resistor from one side of the
power line to ground (who knows what the designer was
thinking when that was specified!! Duh!).  If you
replace the caps, use parts rated for at least 1000
volts AC so they will withstand surges.  (In the
S-22R, the aforementioned capacitors must be in the
circuit).

Bond all the radios together for common ground -- but
BE SURE, before you connect the S-22R to the ground
system, that the radio is plugged in such that the
chassis is not hot!  Best way to avoid this is to use
a 3 wire cord.  Connect the black lead to the supply
side of the circuit (so it goes to the rectifier), the
white lead to the chassis, and the green lead to the
ground terminal on the antenna strip.

73

Mike
WA4DLF

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