Hi everybody,
New SWL from Halifax, Nova Scotia here; I've been wanting to get into shortwave radio for a while now and I just purchased my first receiver, a Realistic DX-200, for $35. I was wondering if anybody had any tips on how to get the most out of it. It seems to be in very good condition and to work like new. I've got a few general questions but any tips at all would be appreciated since I'm just jumping into this feet first; I've been doing a lot of reading but I still know very little about the specifics of short-wave listening.
I'm wondering specifically what the best bet is for an antenna given my situation. I live in a very small, second-story apartment in a house, where I can't attach anything external. I'm on the top floor and the house doesn't have an attic, so my ceiling is reasonably close to the roof of the building. I'm also working with a very limited budget. Just so I could start picking things up, I improvised an antenna from the power cord on an old lamp, first just cutting the cord off from the lamp and the plug and attaching it to the radio antenna, which helped a little; then I split the cord down the middle and rejoined it, doubling the length to about 10 feet or so, which drastically improved things. Today I experimented further by attaching an old mattress spring to the far end of the cord and hung it and the rest of the cord up by the ceiling and I got some pretty decent results, including a really strong signal from the Voice of Turkey today at about 8PM.
My understanding is that longer cable = better reception, so I'm thinking of getting a spool of cable and just stringing it around the ceiling of the apartment, or at least the main room. Will this make a relatively serviceable antenna? What are the major drawbacks with a setup like that?
I was also wondering about the necessity of grounding the antenna if I'm going to be using an "antenna" like that. I've been running it ungrounded so far and my high-tech lamp cord / mattress spring antenna has been bringing in some pretty distant stations as is. Will grounding the antenna improve my reception significantly? Will it reduce interference? Given the situation with my apartment, a ground-spike is pretty much out of the question, so is there a workable and safe way to ground the antenna from where I am in the house? Can I just run a wire from the ground terminal on the back of the radio to the ground prong on the power cable for the radio itself?
Any advice you're able to give would be much appreciated. Many thanks!
New SWL from Halifax, Nova Scotia here; I've been wanting to get into shortwave radio for a while now and I just purchased my first receiver, a Realistic DX-200, for $35. I was wondering if anybody had any tips on how to get the most out of it. It seems to be in very good condition and to work like new. I've got a few general questions but any tips at all would be appreciated since I'm just jumping into this feet first; I've been doing a lot of reading but I still know very little about the specifics of short-wave listening.
I'm wondering specifically what the best bet is for an antenna given my situation. I live in a very small, second-story apartment in a house, where I can't attach anything external. I'm on the top floor and the house doesn't have an attic, so my ceiling is reasonably close to the roof of the building. I'm also working with a very limited budget. Just so I could start picking things up, I improvised an antenna from the power cord on an old lamp, first just cutting the cord off from the lamp and the plug and attaching it to the radio antenna, which helped a little; then I split the cord down the middle and rejoined it, doubling the length to about 10 feet or so, which drastically improved things. Today I experimented further by attaching an old mattress spring to the far end of the cord and hung it and the rest of the cord up by the ceiling and I got some pretty decent results, including a really strong signal from the Voice of Turkey today at about 8PM.
My understanding is that longer cable = better reception, so I'm thinking of getting a spool of cable and just stringing it around the ceiling of the apartment, or at least the main room. Will this make a relatively serviceable antenna? What are the major drawbacks with a setup like that?
I was also wondering about the necessity of grounding the antenna if I'm going to be using an "antenna" like that. I've been running it ungrounded so far and my high-tech lamp cord / mattress spring antenna has been bringing in some pretty distant stations as is. Will grounding the antenna improve my reception significantly? Will it reduce interference? Given the situation with my apartment, a ground-spike is pretty much out of the question, so is there a workable and safe way to ground the antenna from where I am in the house? Can I just run a wire from the ground terminal on the back of the radio to the ground prong on the power cable for the radio itself?
Any advice you're able to give would be much appreciated. Many thanks!