Tutorial for making a long wire antenna for a shortwave radio. This covers some very basic soldering,
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Tutorial for making a long wire antenna for a shortwave radio. This covers some very basic soldering,
Video Rating: 4 / 5
It is an antenna. There are many many different type of antenna, this one
“the long wire antenna” is probably the easiest to make. Infact most radios
use a whip antenna – which is very similar to a long wire. In the end of
the day, the above long wire will increase your ability to pick up a weak
signal – which almost anyone would take to be the definition of a reception
antenna.
Why not just solder the speaker wire directly to the plug? This would
eliminate one solder joint (and a potential problem / weak link), not to
mention that it would be easier!
good vid mate, oh and if HOWARD was so good he would have a camera,,nobody
is interested in negativity unless it is friendly and constructive,,so to
Howard build some great antenna’s sell em, buy a camera and show how its
done ;p
thanks for your comments! ya there is no need for second solder, but in my
case i had a reel of speaker wire ( which is pretty thin and weak stuff ),
so i wanted to have a firm copper wire soldered to it, since that wire was
going to be plugged in/out more often. Basically i was just trying to
ensure it would not break after a few uses – probably no real need for it.
cool thanks!
yi1hra hassan rassol nice
Hello Howard ( and everyone else ), its my video so i will take it down if
and when i want, second you have made your point very clear, many many many
times – we get it, i dont know how to solder. Could you please stop
posting?
This is not an antenna this is only wire
Hi Howard, thanks for the reply! Being crap at soldering, I think a video
reply would be really helpful to make clear the points you make – I will
put a link to your video reply in my video if you like.
Cool! – is there any chance you might make a video to show us all how to do
correctly?
Nevermind! I posted before finishing the whole video! 🙂
It IS an antenna. FM radio on HIFI;s use same principle, just a long loose
wire for FM. Impedance matching is only critical to TRANSMITTING, not
receiving. There are loads of ways to get different results. I use a long
wire, one end on a concrete clothesline pole in my garden, the other end
wrapped many times round a rubber antenna with bnc connected direct to my
Icom. It works a treat and no direct electrical contact, it works by
electromegnetic transference into the rubber antenna! Great vid!
An antenna is an electrical device which converts electric currents into
radio waves, and vice versa. Do my long wire do this in the best possible
manner-No, is it very efficient-no, is it the best-no. But there is also no
hard and fast rule to say is must have so much impedance. What you mean by
“real antenna” i dont know, perhaps you are referring to one to made to
certain specifications. My video is a just a very basic “how to” for making
a quick/cheap/easy antenna that improves weak signals
You do a nice job of showing how to use solder and heat shrink materials to
make a nice looking wire. There are always Ham know-it-alls who are going
to quibble with non technical use of vocabulary, but I wouldn’t worry about
whether it is an antenna or longwire or random wire, which is probably the
best term to use, as long as it works. My only question is why did you
solder twice. It seems that you could have simply soldered the plug to the
lampcord wire and saved yourself a step.
Cool thanks for the tips! unfortunatley the the only Iron i own.
Sorry, but it isn´t an antenna, its only a wire if you use for recieved
signals. a real antenna have the right impedance of 50 OHM your ” longwire”
have sometimes an inpedance of over 100 or 1000 OHM.thx
Wow, who knew a small piece of solder could cause so much anger! please
please please post a video of the above done by an expert – after that i
will take my video down and post a link to yours? deal?
thank you mate
Thanks Howard! Great advice, but this being youtube – a video would be
really nice and helpfull.
thanks for the support!
very helpful, cheers!
Thanks for the feedback Howard. Sorry about any Oxygen stealing on my
behalf. Would you be so kind to help the rest of us understand some basic
soldering, and or antennas? Perhaps a link or two? Books , websites what
ever you feel is best for a “pratt”. Talk soon Howie!
Homosexual soldering technique. They just solder differently than
heterosexuals.
Thanks for posting this. I just bought a G3 and am brand new to SW and not
at all good with electronics. I have read about longwires but nowhere did
it explain how to make one. I suppose to most people this is easy stuff but
I didnt understand how the wire connects to the plug. Reason being I bought
(was suggested) 18 ga speaker wire. It is two wires stuck together. Should
I seperate all 100 feet then? Just use one wire?
You need to pre-tin you wire and also you’re suppose to attatch wire by
putting it don onto the grounding tab then bend the 2 pointed tabs around
the wire.