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Using 102" WHIP for SWL?


Easiest way to find out is to get one and try it out. OR, you can cut about 9 feet of wire and use that. A 102" conductor is a 102" conductor. The fact that one is advertised as an antenna and the other one is just wire is immaterial.

Experiment!
 
I think you might be surprised at how well a 'short' antenna will work just for 'listening'. There's a lot of "if's/and's/but's" in it, but the Navy did some research a long time ago that showed that a resonant antenna just wasn't needed to receive adequately. If I remember correctly, most HF stuff could be heard 'adequately' (which means not the best, but adequately) with just a six foot antenna. Being a bit skeptical about that, I had to try it. They were right. Which says nothing about having to use such a thingy, and wanting to, or getting the absolute bestest results.
So, would I use a typical 102" whip for listening if I had the option of a resonant (or one close to it) antenna? Of course not! But you certainly can.
- 'Doc


(And no, that's not why the common 102" whip antenna is that length. :))
 
Beetle said:
Easiest way to find out is to get one and try it out. OR, you can cut about 9 feet of wire and use that. A 102" conductor is a 102" conductor. The fact that one is advertised as an antenna and the other one is just wire is immaterial.

Experiment!
Click to expand...

I would use wire except that I have a pipe and roof mount that I can mount a
102" whip since stringing wire is a no can do for me. I asked because everywhere I read about the 102" says it's an excellent "quarter" wave which
makes me wonder about the wave match on SW. If I can find a used whip I'll give it a try,Thanks.
 
I asked because everywhere I read about the 102" says it's an excellent "quarter" wave
Click to expand...

It's a 1/4 wave on 11 meters. But that doesn't matter if you're just listening.
 
moleculo said:
It's a 1/4 wave on 11 meters. But that doesn't matter if you're just listening.
Click to expand...


Like Mo said, it's a 1/4 wave antenna on 10/11 meters. Everywhere else it is 102" end fed random "wire" antenna.

It will work "good" as a SWL antenna. Not the best, not the worst. On 40 meters, instead of a station putting a 20 S-meter reading on you if you had a 40 meter dipole, they might put and 8 or 10 S reading on you. But that's still a decent signal and hearing a station is hearing a station.

The further you go down in frequency, the less and less effective it will become.

40 meters (7 mhz) and up....it should work pretty well.

Good luck
 
I think I understand now. I'll put up a 102" as soon as I find one cheap enough (mount and all).

That said, Thanks to all who replied I do appreciate it. (y)
 
Junkyard antenna

I picked up a 102" whip from the local junkyard and am using it on our local 10-meter SSB net. It presents about a 1.5 SWR at 28.450 MHz. Is it the best choice? No, but it works.

...Tom
 
As far as a receive antenna goes You can have a little better luck if you leave the connector unscrewed on the back of your receiver and pull it out just a scosh (is that a word? lol) so that just the center conductor is in contact. Sometimes it will work wonders for a nu resonant antenna.
 

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