From Newsgroup: rec.radio.amateur.boatanc

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.
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From Newsgroup: rec.radio.amateur.boatanc

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.
--
//Steve//

Steve Silverwood, KB6OJS
steve.silverwood@gmail.com
Corona, CA USA
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From Newsgroup: rec.radio.amateur.boatanc

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.
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From Newsgroup: rec.radio.amateur.boatanc

On Sun, 8 Feb 2026 23:47:32 -0000 (UTC), wobl3r <wobble@wobb.le>
wrote:

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.

Sounds like you've got a handle on it, OM.

Did you make sure about the ground connection? Anything metal that
goes into the ground, like a (non-plastic) cold-water pipe, will do
the job. If you don't have a good ground, you can get a grounding rod
at any home-improvement store like Lowe's or Home Depot. Drive it as
far into the ground as you can. Try to keep the ground-wire
connection as short as you can -- I've found that the shorter the
better.

For receiver grounding (if you're a shortwave listener, for example),
I don't notice much difference between one kind of wire or another;
but if you're grounding a transmitter, or a transceiver, I've had best
results by using a braided wire strap. The electrical guys at the home-improvement store will be able to help in that regard.

I had to mention the non-plastic thing, because I'm a retired IT guy
and you'd be AMAZED at some of the <bleep> I've seen out there! Like
the guy who said his computer won't start. "Yeah, I plugged it into
the power strip, and I plugged in the power strip, too! Do you think
I'm stupid?" Unfortunately, he plugged the power strip into itself,
thereby answering his own question....

(Ranks up there with the reason why RV dealers don't call the
cruise-control "autopilot." Real story, a guy got on the highway, set
the cruise control, then got up from the driver's seat and walked back
to eat lunch.)
--
//Steve//

Steve Silverwood, KB6OJS
steve.silverwood@gmail.com
Corona, CA USA
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From Newsgroup: rec.radio.amateur.boatanc

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.
--
The NHS will last as long as there are folk left with faith to
fight for it. - Aneurin Bevan
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From Newsgroup: rec.radio.amateur.boatanc

On 08/02/2026 23:47, wobl3r wrote:

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.
--
Brian Gregory (in England).
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