[Lowfer] Re: What receiver do you recommend?

[WE0H]

Hey Steve,
The steel wire would have a high Rac but I think with enough of it out there
that the signal would be high enough to overcome the losses. At some point
the longer the antenna on LF, the higher the signal but higher noise too.
Try it if you don't mind unwinding some of the roll or all of it, as 1265'
is a quarter wave at 185kc. Vertical antennas are better than horizontal
antennas on LF but it would be hard to have the bare fence wire insulated
unless you threw a few ropes in the trees with insulators on the ends. Now
if you made a big untuned loop out of it and fed that with coax and a 1:1
transformer on the receiver side to reject common mode noise, that might
work well. My series tuned 50 by 50 Ashlock loop works great for receive and
transmitting.

I think Bill Ashlock's tree antenna is 18' of bare wire flung over a treetop
with another 18' of wire running down the tree trunk to a ground stake. I
believe he has a coax feedline connected between the wires like a dipole
arrangement with a 1:1 transformer at the receiver end. I hope I got he
dimensions correct. He says the antenna is very low noise and hears signals
real well. Maybe he will check the messages and comment on this so you have
the correct info if I got some or all of it wrong.

I believe Lyle's son lives in Shell Lake with a beacon sending weather info
in CW.

Mike>WE0H
http://www.we0h.us/lf
"WEOH" on 185.3026kc
QRSS 30 & -.-.  .--
FCC says 'Sufficiently powered @ 1w'

-----Original Message-----
From: lowfer-admin@mailman.qth.net [mailto:lowfer-admin@mailman.qth.net]
On Behalf Of Steve Hughes
Sent: Sunday, November 09, 2003 8:38 PM
To: lowfer@mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Lowfer] Re: What receiver do you recommend?

Hi All,

Thanks a million for all your input!

Mike, I could not copy your signal on 185.3026, despite tuning per your
recommendations. I may have some obstructions--my 70' long wire is
nestled between stucco house and stucco garage. I get great reception in
at my farm in Shell Lake, WI, but could not receive it there, either.
I'll keep trying, and I will likely assemble a little better antenna
before long.

I have 1/4 mile of electric fence wire. Would this material make a
useful long wire antenna, or do I need to stick with copper?

Thanks, what a group!

Steve

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