Old Hallicrafter Radio?

[605Scorpion]

Hello everyone, I'm hoping you will all bear with me for a little bit, as you all seem well versed in this stuff, but I'm just sort of getting used to the lingo. I hope I'm not asking something which I should just Google, however I haven't yet found anything in simple enough terms for me online, so I hope you'll excuse any forum faux pas as well. My dad was gracious enough to lend me his old Hallicrafter S85 and in Houston, with an improvised wire antenna I was able to pick up the NHK out of Canada. Now that I got it home, I wanted to put up a more robust antenna, but unfortunately I'm not real knowledgeable in this stuff at all.

I was going to place it along this wall since it has lots of space and is right next to the radio, but I think maybe all the elctronics would cause interference. I have tried to read up a little on antennas, and this source has proven quite helpful. Going off of that, I was planning something like this but I'm not sure this would be good, since it would be an outdoor antenna indoors? Failing that, I was also thinking of maybe doing a loop around my ceiling, however, I have a stereo cable and a CAT6 cable going diagonally across my ceiling already, and maybe this could cause interference?

Also, many online guides mention the antenna to radio connections being co-axial, however my radio seem to just be the screw down types for two simple wires. It's kinda hard to explain, but there's a picture in the third page of the instruction manual. Sort of confusing.

Is there any advice for someone in my position?

 

[190]

scorpion, go to universal-radio.com then click on there online catologe. on the left hand side you will see short wave antennas/hf. i dont think the old halicrafters does the vhf/uhf (i could be wrong) so the hf antennas will suffice. these are listening antennas. on the right hand side of the page are antennas for transmiting which you dont really need. they have a varity of listening antennas. ive even used one of the slinky shortwave antennas off of ebay. string them around the room or just let it hang. or just go to the local radio shack and get some wire and string it outside or under the eves of your house. since you are not transmiting on that radio,the lenght of the wire antenna is not as critical. i used to have a kenwood r-1000 receiver with a 50 foot peice of wire ran out the window and would pick up all kinds of shortwave broadcast. night time is probably a better listening time for longrange short wave broadcasts. i suppose you could get fancy and get a multi band sloper or longwire antenna but a single peice of wire is simple and will get you listening.

 

[W5LZ]

605Scorpion,
I think you are going to have fun with that ol'Hala-Scratcher' receiver! (That's a term of endearment, not a cuss word, by the way.) They can be a lot of aggravation too, especially if you are used to the typical 'newer' type radios. But that's half the fun of it.

That receiver is not so 'picky' about the antenna you connect to it, and that's good. It was a product of the times when coaxial cable wasn't in very common use at all, that's why no 'screw-on' connectors for coax. It certainly won't hurt to use coax cable though. The old flat 'twin-lead' for TVs will work as a feed line, or just two wires like an extension cord will too. Using a single wire as the feed line and antenna is also an option (or CAT5 cable if you happen to have enough).

Antennas!
There are some very common old saying about antennas. One is that, "The most metal in the air, and as high as you can get it". M eaning that the longer the thing is, the lower the frequency it will 'hear', and the higher it is the further it can 'see' over the horizon. Don't take that strictly as it is stated, it's not a scientific explanation at all, but it certainly has some truth in it for a receiving only antenna. So basically, the mostest, the highest you can get it.
There are sort of two kinds of antennas. One is just a piece of wire strung off in to where ever it goes, of some particular length. The other one is center fed by a two conductor cable. That one has particular lengths that tend to work better than others. One like that is illustrated on page 3 of that manual. The number (couldn't see it very clear) listed just over the antenna is a means of finding the 'best' length for a particular frequency, or band of frequencies. That "magic" number is 468, or 492, for a 1/2 wave center fed antenna. You divide that number by the frequency in Mhz and the answer gives a 'good' length in feet for that particular frequency. As you will see, the lower in frequency you go the longer that antenna gets. Your wall is probably large enough for the higher end of the HF range. Which translates to 10/11 meters, or roughly 26 to 29 Mhz, and physically to something like 18 - 20 feet long. That typically does not include the length of feed line used, just the antenna. On 80 meters, about 3.5 Mhz, the typical 1/2 wave length antenna is in the neighborhood of about 130 feet long. They get big quick, huh? Those longer antennas tend to work okay on higher frequencies. Not super well, but adequately, sort of. The shorter antennas for higher frequencies will work on the lower ones, but not all that well. So in general, the bigger the better to some ridiculous point, then just use what you can manage.
Have you reached the, "OH 'Chit'!" stage yet?
That Cat5 cable, will it bother things? Yes, and no. You might pick up a bit of interference from it, but probably not that much. What's conducted on that Cat5 cable isn't going to be in the HF frequency range, probably. If you hear it at all, I kind'a think you'll recognize it as not being a typical radio signal of some kind. The 'trick' is to just stay away from the frequencies that you hear it on. Or, move the radio's antenna further away from that cable.
Your diagram for an antenna will probably work just fine. Not the best by any means, but it'll work. I would only use the longest of those 'wires', don't worry about adding the shorter ones. That "magic" number divided by the frequency is the key, use it if you can. Indoor antennas seldom work as well as out door antennas. Another one of those "whatever you can manage" thingys. Receiving antennas are just not that critical as to size/shape. Running a single wire out a window/door, tie a rock on the end of it and throw it over the top of the building, works pretty well. (Careful with the rock and glass, they don't like each other.)
There are just gobs of 'tricks' with this stuff, and never enough room to write them all in a post. Playing around (experimenting) won't hurt a thing. Get an idea, try it. Doesn't work? (Join the club!) Try something else. (Wear the 'T'-shirt!) Find a real 'miracle' antenna? Tell me what it is! I'll give you another 'T'-shirt!
The idea is to have fun with it. Do so...
- 'Doc

 

[Beetle]

with an improvised wire antenna I was able to pick up the NHK out of Canada.

Just a quick point: NHK (Nippon Hoso Kyokai) is in Japan. As far as I know, they have no stations in Canada. You might have meant CHU, on 7335, I think. Canada's answer to WWV as a time standard.

My first receiver was an SX-99, back in 1959. I just ran a piece of bell wire kittycorner across the ceiling of my bedroom, held up with thumbtacks, and just connected it to the antenna terminal of the receiver. In the first half hour of getting used to it, I heard broadcasts from every continent except Antarctica! Of course, 1959 was close to the peak of the biggest sunspot maximum in the memory of anyone alive today, AND, since there was no Internet, international shortwave broadcast (ISWBC) was the method of choice for just about every country on the face of the earth to announce its presence to the rest of the world.

Sorry for getting a little flowery there, but these days, ISWBC is very much reduced. Countries that once had ISWBC stations now have homepages...