[SKW40]

To everyone
Hi I am new to this forum,but not new to radio. I have been collecting radios
since I have been around the age of 4.
I carried home my first radio the and it was a Zenith made in 1940.
Anyways I moved on to philco radios. I have 3 cathedral types that I did
complete restoration on. model 50,51,89

I have been trying to set up a really good Antenna,but I live really far out in the
country now.
I move out here after my wife and her parents passed on in a car wreck in Nov 2006.
I now have been raising my daughter on my own since then. We were the only one to
survive the wreck. Another driver hit us straight on. Anyways I had a friend give
me a service man book for installing antenna for philco back in the 1930;s

There is an Antenna listed and can anyone help me to know if this antenna is still
possible to get,or can someone help me to know the correct antenna for these
radios to get the best performance.

The book I am refering to is Radio Manufactures Service Lesson Number Eight. It
was for Service men that worked at Philco.

The antenna they sugested is the Philco ALL-WAZE
Aerial Noise elemination on Broadcast and Shortwave.
It in a box and the picture of it really good in this book.

Well I have restored these radios back to the state of being like new. There is no
Antenna impedance ever given for these radios,so it hard to know what that would be.

Well if anyone knows where I can get an antenna like this or how to make a really good
antenna for someone who lives about 150 to 200 miles away from the radio station
please help.

Dallas is my Closest spot,and that near 150 miles from me.
Same for Shreveport,Lousiana

I am really in the middle of no where.

Texarkana is about 75 to 80 miles away. We tested the radios at a farmers house
on an old philco antenna like I listed and was able to get Dallas on all of the radios.
The Philco 51 outperformed the Model 50 and 89. The 89 you would have out done
the 51 since it has a RF tube stage in front but it did not.
Anyways we peaked each stage of the radio using his antenna to get max performance.
He said I really needed to find one of those type of antennas.

Well please help anyone if you can

Thanks
SKW40

[TA Forbes]

Hello, and welcome to the forum. A long, high wire will give you good reception on your sets. Since you live "in the middle of nowhere," an outside antenna may be somthing that you can make. But if outside you must have lightning arrester(s) installed on it and you should have a method of disconnecting the antenna, such as a switch, from the radio(s).

I have my antennas inside where I live. I use eye screws and mount them to the ceiling where it joins the wall. I also have them along the window moulding in some rooms. There are several "right" way to do it, but as a rule longer and higher is better.

[SKW40]

Thank you for the help on the antenna.

I was reading about that antenna in the book where it use a pair of tisted
wired coming down from the antenna. They also mention some matching transformer
used to match the radio to the antenna back then. I did see the kit had
an lighting arrester. I think that part I have. It black and has three post on it.
2 say antenna and the other says ground. it the biggest post and located
in the middle of this device.

This was in that Philco All wave antenna kit.

Looks like the kit came out in 1935 or 1936.

Thanks again
Sean

[Radioroslyn]

Hi and Welcome to the Phourm!!!
First off Sorry for loses.
As for the antenna as Tom mentioned inside is ok but outside is much better! The higher and longer the better! The best situation is an antenna that is resonant to the frequency you are listening to. Unfortunately for the AM broadcast band this would be over 1000' long. So if you can get 100' or longer of wire up 30-50' high you should be doing great. If you've got some tall trees you can use a slingshot to propel some heavy weight thread you can tie that to some rope which can be used to support your antenna wire.
Let me know what you've got to work with and we'll figure out a good antenna for you. All three of those sets should work well with an outdoor antenna.
Terry

[TA Forbes]

Terry's a good man to help you with this project!!

I think that you are talking about two different antennas offered from Philco.

The Philco All Wave Antenna Kit consisted of a long roll of a conductor (your antenna), some insulators, and a lightning arrestor. You can make one of these yourself.

The Philco High Efficiency Aerial was included with Philco sets, I believe, in 1937. It is a pretty good antenna for it's size. But as Terry stated, higher and longer is better.

Impedence matching is not really a big deal for a recieving station. It is a big deal with a transmitting station. Since all of your sets are recievers, don't worry about this.

A twisted pair for the lead going from your antenna to your radio would simply be a grounded wire twisted around your antenna lead. In my opinion this is of minimal value for most recievers. A doublet antenna is similar looking but for your purposes a single longwire antenna will offer you great reception.

[Radioroslyn]

>A twisted pair for the lead going from your antenna to your radio would simply be a >grounded wire twisted around your antenna lead. In my opinion this is of minimal value for >most recievers. A doublet antenna is similar looking but for your purposes a single longwire >antenna will offer you great reception.

If you can still find it 300 ohm twin lead that would make a good feedline. Did see it a few years ago dirt cheap at Lowes or Depot.
Terry

[Texasrocker]

What would be ideal in this situation would be a simple longwire antenna tuner made from removing a old 550- 1650 kc tuning condenser from a garage sale (cheap find) plastic am tube radio receiver chassis. Install it in series ( stator and rotor) with the main antenna connector just off back of the receiver being used to receive stations outside receiving area ( mounted to a small piece of 1" x 4" wood with bottom screws to mount), connected to about a 40' piece of "insulated" 18 guage single strand solid wire ( old dynamite type wire) run under a window sill or closed window, thru or under outdoor window screen, tied off from eve of house to nearest building or tree as high as possible using simple homemade small 3" pvc pipe insulators. Tune the radio to the Dallas stations frequency, then dial in the same frequency on the added tuning capacitor to "peak" resonance. This setup can make a short outdoor longwire antenna look hundreds of feet long in a very small space. Grab that frequency!!

[TA Forbes]

Speaking of dynamite wire, the wire I use for my antenna is salvaged claymore mine wire from my former life in the USMC. I still have several rolls of it.

[Texasrocker]

I still have about 2500' ft left off a old original 5000' roll dynamite wire. Can't find this stuff anymores! 18 guage solid strand plastic-jacket coated dynamite wire makes darn good outdoor longwire antennas indeed! Works well for broadcasting from 550- 1700kc also with 12 watts from a 6L6 or 6550 tube!! Mucho coverage!! I love experimenting on AM broadcast band indeed! It's not always about "receiving"! It's what watts you can "give" on the airwaves, for "test purposes" sometimes! ( hee hee) Antenna tuners work on both ends indeed!

[Marsupial]

I still have about 2500' ft left off a old original 5000' roll dynamite wire. Can't find this stuff anymores! 18 guage solid strand plastic-jacket coated dynamite wire makes darn good outdoor longwire antennas indeed! Works well for broadcasting from 550- 1700kc also with 12 watts from a 6L6 or 6550 tube!! Mucho coverage!! I love experimenting on AM broadcast band indeed! It's not always about "receiving"! It's what watts you can "give" on the airwaves, for "test purposes" sometimes! ( hee hee) Antenna tuners work on both ends indeed!

do you have better broadcast with a longer antenna? I tought the antenna needed to be a specific optimal lenght...?

[TA Forbes]

More so for transmitting than for recieving. An ideal antenna would be a factor of the wavelength that you were transmitting or recieving, i.e. 1Xwavelength, 2Xwavelength, etc... but this could result in a very long antenna. 1/2 or 1/4 wavelength antennas are acceptable alternatives but not as effective.

You can use this equation to calculate wavelength:

wavelength=300/(frequency in MHz)

As frequencies go up, corresponding wavelengths go down.

[Marsupial]

so if I am broadcasting at 1200 AM... AM is in Khz, so 1.2 Mhz

wavelength=300/1.2 = 250

250m ?

Even 1/4 wave would be a long antenna... 62m

The transmitter I use has a coil prior to the antenna, I understand this helps reducint the required antenna. I optimized the output using a scope and have a good signal, but only for about 10 ft, after that there's an added noise in the background that seems to be due to the signal being too low at that point. I'd like to get about 50-60 ft.

would I be able to prevent that with a longer antenna on the receiving end?
How do I tweak the trasmitting antenna to get better distnace?

[TA Forbes]

For reception this is not critical for the kind of radiography most of us require. With the variety of stations/frequencies we listen to (KHz/MHz) a simple longwire is sufficient.

In the military they use a matching unit that electrically "matches" the fixed length antenna included with the set to the frequency that is being broadcast/recieved.

I have a couple of "inverted L" antennas here. These are pretty good if you have an antenna inside your home. Also have a pretty long one that goes up one side of a large series of 3 windows, across the tops, and back down the opposite side. It is my best antenna. Go figure.....

In my former life the antenna configuration was critical in term of length, orientation, and take off angle. But in these cases we were given a set of frequencies to use and it was easier to prepare your system before you went out in the "bush."

[BDM]

BTW, if anyone's interested in these antenna's. Here are a couple of shots from my factory antenna's (old post)

Note from site admin: Sorry, but the photos which were attached to this post are no longer available.

[BDM]

If I remember correctly, the Philco antenna is longer than the Zenith equivalent

Note from site admin: Sorry, but the photos which were attached to this post are no longer available.