Hello friends,

I took advantage of recent good weather to improve my receiving antenna. It’s connected to my bedside Drake SW8 receiver, by way of a coax cable placed in the frame of the house during an addition almost twenty years ago. Once outside, the coax goes underground, protected by an old garden hose, to a spot on the back yard where a pine tree one stood.

A few years ago, the pine tree was removed because of a pine tree disease. Now in that spot are two stacked mast sections, giving me an unimpressive nine feet of elevation. A PL-259 at the bottom of the mast was connected, via a BNC adapter, to a WiNRADiO WR-LWA-0130 Long Wire Adapter, then to the random length of wire.

I  was not happy with the performance this listening antenna, so I replaced the WiNRADiO adapter (involving an hours-long struggle, including laceration, with the old stretch tape) with an LDG 9:1 unun. The unun is perhaps not necessary for a receive-only antenna, but it provides a convenient terminal for a wire to a ground rod, also located where to pine tree was.

The random insulated wire goes to the top of the mast sections, then over to the top of a tall wooden fence belonging to the neighbor to west. Then it follows the top of the wooden fence to the back of the property, where the wire drops down to an old chain link fence (unknown if it’s mine or the neighbors to the north), following that fence to a point a comfortable distance from electric wires on the west side of the property, for a total of about 120 feet. Before, the wire was drooping visibly. Now it’s stretched and mostly invisible.

Anyway, I am pleased with reception using this revised antenna design. I’m not sure if it’s the unun or the ground or the few extra feet of capture area that accounts for the improvement. But, whatever, I’ll take it. (Fortunately RF noise in the neighborhood is not excessive.)

By the way, I don’t use the bedside SW8 for digital modes, because there is no PC at that location. The SW8 is mostly for insomnolent monitoring of the ham bands (using an earpiece, of course).

A video of last week’s Shortwave Radiogram (program 470) is provided by Scott in Ontario (Wednesday 1330 UTC). The audio archive is maintained by Mark in the UK. Analysis is provided by Roger in Germany.

Here is the lineup for Shortwave Radiogram, program 471, 15-22 October 2026, in MFSK modes as noted (plus maybe a surprise mode):

1:41  MFSK32: Program preview
 2:52  MFSK32: Stratospheric drone could replace weather balloons
 7:08  MFSK64: Supercapacitor cement lets buildings store power
10:51  MFSK64: This week’s images
27:31  MFSK32: Closing announcements

Please send reception reports to radiogram@verizon.net

And visit http://swradiogram.net

Twitter: @SWRadiogram or https://twitter.com/swradiogram

(visit during the weekend to see listeners’ results)

Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/567099476753304

Shortwave Radiogram Gateway Wiki: https://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Shortwave_Radiogram_Gateway

Shortwave Radiogram Transmission Schedule

Other Shortwave broadcast programs that include digital text and images include The Mighty KBC, Pop Shop Radio and Radio North Europe International (RNEI). Links to these fine broadcasts, with schedules, are posted here.

Thanks for your reception reports!

Kim

Kim Andrew Elliott, KD9XB
Producer and Presenter
Shortwave Radiogram
Reporting on international broadcasting at https://twitter.com/kaedotcom

Fuente: https://swradiogram.net/

Categorías:Broadcasting

Etiquetas:Digital Modes, Frecuencias, MSFK64, Onda Corta, Shortwave, SW, SWL