This question has probably been asked a thousand times, but..
I purchased an RTL-sdr a few years back and started to take a great
interest in trying to receive far away broadcasts. These where more on the >HF bands which I knew the rtl-sdr was poor at receiving. Since i have
moved house and want to get back into this hobby. I will be purchasing an >Airspy HF_Discovery to get further down the bands and, you guessed it..
What would be my best antenna?
To give a bit of a picture of what my layout is. I live in a 3 story house >in a built up area near the sea in the UK. The front of the house is only >two stories tall to the front road with a very steep incline running down
to the back of the house which is three stories tall. At about 6.5 meters >from the back of the house I have a decent sized stream which runs along >side the garden. my garden would be 6.5 meters by 16 meters.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
On Fri, 6 Feb 2026 18:15:27 -0000 (UTC), Unknown <wobble@wobb.le> wrote:
This question has probably been asked a thousand times, but..
I purchased an RTL-sdr a few years back and started to take a great >>interest in trying to receive far away broadcasts. These where more on
the HF bands which I knew the rtl-sdr was poor at receiving. Since i
have moved house and want to get back into this hobby. I will be
purchasing an Airspy HF_Discovery to get further down the bands and, you >>guessed it.. What would be my best antenna?
To give a bit of a picture of what my layout is. I live in a 3 story
house in a built up area near the sea in the UK. The front of the house
is only two stories tall to the front road with a very steep incline >>running down to the back of the house which is three stories tall. At
about 6.5 meters from the back of the house I have a decent sized stream >>which runs along side the garden. my garden would be 6.5 meters by 16 >>meters.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I'm not an electronics engineer, but I'll chip in my $0.02 worth....
For simple receiving, I've found good results with a simple long-wire
antenna of whatever length you can set up. The longer, the better. A shortwave-listener friend of mine did that with about 50 feet of wire
and hooked it up directly to his receiver. The results were amazing,
and he didn't worry about resonant-frequencies or anything. You CAN use
an antenna tuner for it if you want, and it might help. Be sure to get
a good ground connection also.
On Sat, 07 Feb 2026 11:29:32 -0800, Steve Silverwood [KB6OJS] wrote:
I'm not an electronics engineer, but I'll chip in my $0.02 worth....
For simple receiving, I've found good results with a simple long-wire
antenna of whatever length you can set up. The longer, the better. A
shortwave-listener friend of mine did that with about 50 feet of wire
and hooked it up directly to his receiver. The results were amazing,
and he didn't worry about resonant-frequencies or anything. You CAN use
an antenna tuner for it if you want, and it might help. Be sure to get
a good ground connection also.
Thanks. I have ran a coil of electrical cable i had spare (Single core >1.5mm) it was roughly about 80meters. I put a 20meter counterpoise onto
it. Signal is very strong, but so is the interference. I am going to get a >9:1 balun to see if it will reduce the interference.
To give a bit of a picture of what my layout is. I live in a 3 story house in a built up area near the sea in the UK. The front of the house is only two stories tall to the front road with a very steep incline running down
to the back of the house which is three stories tall. At about 6.5 meters from the back of the house I have a decent sized stream which runs along side the garden. my garden would be 6.5 meters by 16 meters.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
On Sat, 07 Feb 2026 11:29:32 -0800, Steve Silverwood [KB6OJS] wrote:
On Fri, 6 Feb 2026 18:15:27 -0000 (UTC), Unknown <wobble@wobb.le> wrote:
This question has probably been asked a thousand times, but..
I purchased an RTL-sdr a few years back and started to take a great
interest in trying to receive far away broadcasts. These where more on
the HF bands which I knew the rtl-sdr was poor at receiving. Since i
have moved house and want to get back into this hobby. I will be
purchasing an Airspy HF_Discovery to get further down the bands and, you >>> guessed it.. What would be my best antenna?
To give a bit of a picture of what my layout is. I live in a 3 story
house in a built up area near the sea in the UK. The front of the house
is only two stories tall to the front road with a very steep incline
running down to the back of the house which is three stories tall. At
about 6.5 meters from the back of the house I have a decent sized stream >>> which runs along side the garden. my garden would be 6.5 meters by 16
meters.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I'm not an electronics engineer, but I'll chip in my $0.02 worth....
For simple receiving, I've found good results with a simple long-wire
antenna of whatever length you can set up. The longer, the better. A
shortwave-listener friend of mine did that with about 50 feet of wire
and hooked it up directly to his receiver. The results were amazing,
and he didn't worry about resonant-frequencies or anything. You CAN use
an antenna tuner for it if you want, and it might help. Be sure to get
a good ground connection also.
Thanks. I have ran a coil of electrical cable i had spare (Single core
1.5mm) it was roughly about 80meters. I put a 20meter counterpoise onto
it. Signal is very strong, but so is the interference. I am going to get a 9:1 balun to see if it will reduce the interference.
Many of the cheaper receivers particularly those designed to be used
with their own telescopic whip antenna will overload when connected to a >large antenna. Overload produces a terrible result.
Many of the cheaper receivers particularly those designed to be used
with their own telescopic whip antenna will overload when connected to a >large antenna. Overload produces a terrible result.
On Fri, 6 Feb 2026 18:15:27 -0000 (UTC), Unknown <wobble@wobb.le> wrote:
To give a bit of a picture of what my layout is. I live in a 3 story house >> in a built up area near the sea in the UK. The front of the house is only >> two stories tall to the front road with a very steep incline running down >> to the back of the house which is three stories tall. At about 6.5 meters >> from the back of the house I have a decent sized stream which runs along
side the garden. my garden would be 6.5 meters by 16 meters.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
If you have endless land, and money, there are some
designs that have some bandwidth and are directional. The rhombic
and Beverage being examples and are often used for commercial
point to point use,
But as a short wave listener you are best served with a
random length of wire in the air and a physical ground.
The wire should be as long as is practical. If you can
run along a fence, that woud work as would along the roof line.
As most receivers these days have a 50 Ohm connection
much can be gained by using a 9:1 balun beween the antenna wire
and radio.
You can wind your own balun, or buy one ready made
designed for the Short Wave Listener.
https://moonrakeronline.com/us/lwb-1-receiving-balun
https://www.ebay.com/itm/121187691169https://www.ebay.com/itm/121187691169
https://elekitsorparts.com/product/91-balun-for-hf-band-91-balun-for-rtl-sdr-long-wire-antenna-matching/
There are lots of designs if you want to roll your own:
https://m0ukd.com/homebrew/baluns-and-ununs/91-magnetic-longwire-balun-unun/
As for the anntenna wire it just has to be conductive. If
you have to keep the antenna indoors, you can use thin magnet
wire. For outdoor use it has to withstand wind and perching
birds.
For a ground, you can attach to a copper or
iron cold water pipe, or drive a copper rod into the ground.
Note: As telcos are abandoning copper these days you
should be able to find abandoned phone wire.
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