[MilCom] HF Comms Help

[mdmonitor1 at verizon.net]

Mike,

Here's my 2 cents on HF antennas.  Outside antennas aren't an option for 
me so I went with an attic installation. If you have that option I would 
recommend the PAR Electronics EF-SWL antenna. It's not too expensive 
(about $60 I think) and very rugged. It's easy to deploy, and 
transportable--you can easily coil it up and move it somewhere else or 
take it along with you when traveling. It's relatively quiet, performs 
as well if not better than my 70-ft wire which uses a Magnetic Longwire 
Balun.

It even performs well in the LVHF (30-80 MHz) and VHF acft (118-136 MHz) 
ranges. I've even used it for the very low HF stuff below 518 KHz. 
Something else you might want to try is your VHF antenna. I use a 
Diamond discone and it does fairly well in the HF ranges above 5 MHz. 
Give yours a try.

There's alot of antenna theory floating about but like my old sergeant 
used to say, " You never know what you can hear until you stick that 
wire up in the air."

Ron
Baltimore MD
VHF/UHF: BC-895XLT/RS Pro-2045
Diamond D-130J discone
HF: Icom R75 & Sangean ATS 909
45-ft EF-SWL & 70-ft random wire



On Tue, Mar 18, 2008 at 11:34 PM, Keith Coleman wrote:

> At the risk of being off topic..
>
> I'm in search of some advise/help from those much more knowledgeable 
> than
> myself.
>
> This weekend I stepped into the world of SW/HF monitoring. I purchased 
> an
> Eton E5. While this radio by all accounts seems pretty good (and I got 
> a
> good deal), it has many features, I'm a little overwhelmed by the 
> vastness
> of HF and what is available to monitor.
>
> I guess what I'm looking for is a beginners list of freqs to get 
> started. I
> have already heard Offut and Andrews AFBs  on 11175.
> How might I best utilize the supplied wire antenna? (Currently 
> stretched
> around the small room I'm in).
>
>
> My apologies for bringing this into the milcom groups..but I figured 
> some of
> you gents are the experts. Please feel free to contact me off-list. 
> Thanks
> for your time and help.
> Regards,
>
> ===============================
> Keith
> Monitoring Central Alabama
> ===============================
>
>
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