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KD0ILS
Tue 16th Mar 2010, 15:38
Hello All-
I am interested in building my own HF dipole to recieve from 1.6khz - 30mhz I was planning on taking some rg-58 that i have laying around and soildering it to two pieces of measured wire to create a dipole. I was suggested by a friend to use a 1:1 balun or a 4:1 balun where the coax meets the wire elements. What length of the elements would be suitable for recieving through the entire range. Another reason I am trying to make my own equipment is for the learning process and i am also a college student with a limited budget. Since this is my first homebrew project and I dont have an elmer, i was wondering what peoples thoughts are on this, or if anyone would be willing to share their similar project.
Thanks...
-KD0ILS

m0bov
Tue 16th Mar 2010, 17:35
For general shortwave listening, its hard to beat a random long wire, fed with coax. Connect the braid to a suitable earth like radiator and use a matching unit tuned to peak the noise level.

Get as much wire up as high as poss, keep it away from sources of noise and use a cheap simple shortwave receiver type matcher to peak the noise level.

KD0ILS
Tue 16th Mar 2010, 19:15
So would it work to just run a few inches of coax out of my radio and then connect the braid from the coax to my grounding bussbar and then continue with the rest of the 100' of wire antenna out of my house? (I have it following my roofline)