Grounding Help

[Bob S.]

I recently bought a Grundig G3 shortwave radio and put up a 14 ga., 50' insulated solid copper wire antenna. I used a smaller diameter multi strand copper feed wire in to my radio with an alligator clip to connect it to the radios whip antenna. What would be the best way to ground this set up and will a ground wire cut down on some of static/noise that I'm picking up? I'm new to SWL and would appreciate any advise.

Bob

 

[Wire Weasel]

Hi Bob, Probably not. What are you going to connect the "ground" to on the radio? The whole thing is in a plastic body and case.

And you might have too much antenna for that radio. These small portables are easily overloaded and if you put too much signal into them it's just going to be a bunch of noise and intermod and spurious signals.

15-23 feet of wire may actually work better.

I have a wire on a reel that Radio Shack sold to go with their SW portables and it is 23' long. Does a good job with not too much noise.

Good luck!

 

[Bob S.]

Thanks for the reply Wire Weasel, I appreciate it. I wasn't sure what was supposed to be grounded, the radio or the antenna. You were right on with the antenna length too. I had 25' of wire left over from my first project, so I put it up last night. I seem to be able to receive almost everything I could with the longer antenna, with a lot less noise. Thanks again!

Bob

 

[mackmobile43]

Hi Bob, Probably not. What are you going to connect the "ground" to on the radio? The whole thing is in a plastic body and case.

And you might have too much antenna for that radio. These small portables are easily overloaded and if you put too much signal into them it's just going to be a bunch of noise and intermod and spurious signals.

15-23 feet of wire may actually work better.

I have a wire on a reel that Radio Shack sold to go with their SW portables and it is 23' long. Does a good job with not too much noise.

Good luck!

The SO-239 or the mounting screws on the side.