[Fwd: LF: Receiving antennas at LF]

[Andre' Kesteloot]

Dave Sergeant wrote:

> >From Dave Sergeant G3YMC
>
> I note with interest the comments from Mike G3XDV and Peter G3LDO on the
> performance of large wire receiving antennas.  I think what they say is
> true.  I can often hear signals on my long wire (only 60 ft of it) which
> are not audible on my loop, and this seems to be true particularly for the
> more distant stations.  Apart from LX1PD who is always strong, most of the
> other european stations here are very weak or inaudible on the loop, while
> quite copyable on the long wire.  My main limitation of using the long wire
> is that it picks up far more local noise and QRN and is virtually unusable
> in the evening.  It is currently untuned, but I suspect if I did tune it it
> would just make the noise pick up problem much worse.
>
> Even so, I have yet to hear OH1TN on either of my antennas, and I suspect
> this proves that a properly resonated high and very long wire does indeed
> outperform other antennas on the band.  I do not however have the real
> estate for such an antenna!
>
> It is difficult to know exactly how the receivers worked at the USA site
> the other weekend, and how the band sounded compared with what we are
> accustomed to hear over in the UK, but I perhaps have the impression that
> their performance and that of the antennas were a bit down.  The fact that
> Andre didn't think Loran too much of a problem may well indicate something
> in this respect.  A future listening experiment with 200-300 ft long wires
> may well show a rather different story.
>
> Cheers Dave G3YMC