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RADIO SALES, SERVICING, CONSULTANCY, DESIGN Satphones, Commercial, Amateur, CB, GPS, Marine Radio and Surveys
Shop/Office: 243 Seacombe Road, South Brighton, South Australia 5048 Postal: PO Box167, Brighton, South Australia, 5048 Shop Hours: Mon- Fri 9am-5:30pm Sat 9am-5pm Tel/Fax: 08 8298 3906 International +61 8 8298 3906 Email: mail@radiospecialists.com.au ABN:20 428 966 535 |
You can make wire antennas for a modest cost that will yield excellent performance. Using dipole antennas that are resonant on a particular band, you can easily receive shortwave stations. The antenna wire shown is 7 strands of 0.67 copper wire. It is fairly heavy duty wire. Overall diameter is approx 3.5mm. The insulation provides protection for the copper from oxidization caused by the weather, and adds additional strength, particularly where baluns are used in the middle of the antenna to suspend the feed cable. We have used long lengths of this wire for years and they have withstood severe storms and are still standing. You can get going for around the $100 mark with a half roll of wire, a balun and a couple of insulators. How easy is that !
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Antenna wire 7/0.67copper insulated 100m roll $69.95 |
 Kenpro KA50 balun $59.95 |
Unadilla Balun $49.95 |
Egg insulators Ceramic 40mm x 30mm $1.95 ea
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TQJ-30A Heavy duty balun. Heavy duty flexible wire. Heavy duty insulators Broadband folded dipole 2-30 MHz (two wires parallel with spacers). Ideal alternative to G5RV, Windom etc. Suitable for transmitters. Commercial grade quality TQJ-30A $169.95 VALUE
(Similar to Icom AH-710 at $580.80 RRP) |
TQJ-30A Designed for the 2-30 MHz band it features good SWR match over then entire band without tuning or the need for an antenna tuner. Ideal for F calls, and portable field day users, as well as fixed amateur radio station installations. Suitable for commercial users.
Use as horizontal antenna, sloping antenna, or inverted V antenna. |
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Prefer to make your own antennas? Then you need a 1:1 balun. For dipoles or inverted V's PRICE: $49.95 |
KA-50 BALUN
Frequency Range: 1.8 - 50 MHz Impedance: 50 ohms Maximum Power: 1kW CW, 2kW PEP Transformation ratio: 1:1 Dimensions: 100( W) x 120 (H) x 30 (D) mm Weight : approx: 170g
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Print this off and keep it near your short wave receiver.
| SHORT WAVE BAND | FREQUENCIES | USE |
| 11 METRES | 25.670 to 26.100 MHz | Very little short wave broadcast activity in this band. Poor day reception. No night reception. |
| 13 METRES | 21.450 to 21.85 MHz | Often unreliable in daytime and seldom heard at night. Mainly for very long distance transmitters during the day. |
| 15 METRES | 18.900 to 19.020 MHz | Seldom heard. |
| 16 METRES | 17.480 to 17.900 MHz | Day reception good . Long distance reception eg Europe. Night reception varies. |
| 19 METRES | 15.000 to 15.825 MHz | Day reception good. Long distance reception eg Europe. Night reception varies. |
| 22 METRES | 13.570 to 13.870 MHz | Day reception good. Long distance reception eg Europe. Night reception varies. |
| 25 METRES | 11.500 to 12.160 MHz | Best before and after sunset. |
| 31 METRES | 9.250 to 9.995 MHz | Night reception good. Sometimes good during the day. |
| 41 METRES | 7.100 to 7.600 MHz | Night reception good. Usually shorter range. |
| 49 METRES | 5.800 to 6.300 MHz | Night reception good. Little daytime reception. |
| 60 METRES | 4.400 to 5.100 MHz | Night reception good. Virtually no daytime reception. |
| 75 METRES | 3.900 to 4.050 MHz | Night reception good but little activity. |
| 90 METRES | 3.200 to 3.400 MHz | Night reception. Limited short wave use and range. |
| 120 METRES | 2.300 to 2.495 MHz | Night reception. Limited short wave use and range. |
Bands where you are most likely to hear short wave broadcast stations are in red.
Sometimes broadcast stations give frequencies in Kilohertz (kHz) on the lower bands and Megahertz (MHz) on the higher bands. 1 MHz = 1000 kHz.
Radio waves travel at the speed of light = 300,000,000 metres per second which is essentially a fixed speed. Divide this by the frequency eg 10,000,000 Hz (or 10 Megahertz ie 10 MHz) = 30 metres. So the 9.5 MHz broadcast band is the 31 Metre broadcast band. It means the same thing, it's just that wavelength is traditionally used to indicate radio bands and frequencies are used to indicate the allocated broadcasting slot within the band.
Short wave broadcasters generally beam their transmissions at certain service areas ie certain countries or regions eg Asia, Oceania etc.
Some frequencies remain reliable for regular listening, but a large number of them are changed regularly by the international arrangements in place.
A web search will reveal frequencies and broadcast times. Some broadcasters are shown below.
Most are analogue AM but digital radio (DRM) is emerging http://www.drm.org/
| SHORT WAVE BROADCASTERS |
| RADIO AUSTRALIA |
| BBC |
| VOICE OF AMERICA |
| RADIO NEW ZEALAND |
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