Over at Moto-Tux, I go into the dull intricacies of communications in the outback, and why my Jeep looks a bit like a pincushion.
-- Badtux the Radioactive Penguin
2 days ago
Friday, March 13, 2009
5 comments:
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I guess there are drawbacks to livin' in the boonies....but it's allot more comfortable.
ReplyDeleteO.K. if you're gonna talk antennae, I'm gonna ask an antennae question: How can I improve the function of the silly damn single wire antennae on my FM clock radio?
ReplyDeleteGrandpa, I wouldn't call it "comfortable", just "quiet".
ReplyDeleteJeg, your FM clock radio has so many problems that I can't even begin to start listing them all. But the very least you could do would be to put a longer wire. Up to a certain point, longer wire means better reception (the certain point is about 54 inches for FM, since it lives in the 100mhz band). Sad to say, once you sort out the antenna situation you still have the situation that, well, the internal electronics of your clock radio are rubbish. Just be happy it gets any reception at all, that makes it very unusual for FM clock radios today...
Hmm, yr Jeep got a plastic hardtop, I figure. What kind of SWR do you get with that kind of mount? Foot loading coils on the rods?
ReplyDeleteJust an 11m junkie that still hasn´t found the time for his UHF/VHF license. And my need is not so dire, cause round here there is not spot w/o GSM coverage.
Ducki
The "hard top" is fiberglass. It doesn't reflect radio waves, it just attenuates them slightly (the longer the radio wave, the more it attenuates it). Have good SWR's with both antennas, surprisingly so with the CB rig (it's not supposed to work that well located where it's located), the 2m rig is no surprise because it's right there where it can use the tub as its ground plane (the bracket puts its base right at the edge of the tub).
ReplyDeleteThe 2m/70cm has a base coil. The Firestik has a top coil. Generally top coils give you better reception because you don't have the losses in the coil on receive, but the problem is that an antenna stiff enough for a top coil pretty much has to be a wire-wound fiberglass stick -- which doesn't carry a whole lot of transmit power and doesn't talk as well as it listens. But it talks good 'nuff for talking amongst members of a group, and that's good 'nuff for me...