[murf]

Thanks Ron,
I think I will try that for now seeing as we are up to our eyeballs in snow.
Once the weather gets decent, I will attempt the outdoor setup.
murf

[murf]

Ron,
Is the .001 cap to eliminate noise?
murf

[murf]

Hi Ron,
Have a question regarding the hookup to the phone line.
Will this work for more than one radio.
What if antenna wires were attached to other phone jacks?
Would other radios be able to receive from other phone jacks?
Could have choice of at least 2 different wires?
So many questions.
murf

[Ron Ramirez]

Assuming your phone line is no longer being used and is disconnected at the pole...

Yes, it can work for more than one radio - provided that you use a different color wire for each radio. Red for one, green for another, yellow for a third. This way they do not interfere with each other.

If you connect multiple radios to a single longwire, performance will suffer.

You could use a live phone line, but you will get interference when you have a call; plus it is not good for the (live) phone line either as the radio can cause interference in your phone.

Don't forget that .001 uF cap! It is used to provide some isolation between the phone line and radio.

[EdHolland]

For my collection of more modern general coverage receivers, I set up a switch-box. This way, I can connect any receiver to either of two antennas. When not in use, the other receivers are isolated from the antenna so there are no loading issues. This works well, since it is very unusual to be using two receivers at once.

[jcassity]

I'll expand on my earlier comments.

A while back i was having electrical interference on all my sets and finally solved hat issue.
in the meantime while this was an active problem i set out to solve it.

on my philco and 3 other small units i wired in a small 120v AC relay. the relay is downstream of the fuse. I would bring the Hot and N leg over to the relay.

I disconnected the wire leading to the antenna hook up terminal and brought that over to the relay "common".
I installed a new wire from the relay "NO" contact over to the antenna long wire hook up.
what i achieved on each radio whats its ability to automatically connect & disconnect itself from the antenna.

later when i found my issue in the house i took the relays out and converted to something more even more simple.
I use a 10pos rotary switch to select which radio i want to listen to in the garage.,, yet the long wire comes to this switch on the common terminal.

one thing i am *not doing* is using a ground rod.
there are three ways to do a ground for the radios, yet one is somewhat not exactly NEC compliant , all manuals so to do it.

---doing a dedicated ground for your radios would be considered a separately derived ground per the NEC, yet who really cares right?
in my garage when i did do a 10' copper clad steel rod, and connected up to my sets.. the reception went "down" ,, or maybe its to the ear the DB level? I also had some hum noise. I noticed no net gain but seemed like the right thing to do... yet i abandoned it for another choice.
Also after process of elimination i found 2 of my radios "if plugged in was back feeding my ground rod. I flipped the AC input legs in the set (minerva tropic master) even though it was right and the results were the same.

The lessons i learned about doing a long wire antenna to service multiple radios leads me to one common challenge.....

*you better make darn sure you have resolved any hot chassis issues in any of your sets before bonding all these sets to a common single ground.

around the same time i was solving my own issues i saw a topic here, a debate actually, on the usefulness / advantages / disadvantages of integrating a 3 prong outlet to all radios no matter what they are. I was planning out a way to get all my sets to a 3 prong situation when some of the seasoned people here started making good points about when it should or should not be done.

again all this stuff i am rattling on about ties into a useful long wire antenna performance characteristics.

at this point, since my philco and my minerva both induce a back feed voltage on my antenna while plugged in but in the "off" state, I opted for no ground rod at all. i am just using a long wire antenna that leads to a rotary switch. within the rotary switch there is some degree of coupling from other sets but the are electrically isolated from one another , ,, which was the easy way for me to solve the problems of other radios that are "off" not interfering with the radio that i want to be "on".

To the telephone wire thing... im must absorbing other peoples results,,, never tried it nor did i know to. whats interesting is the wires are twisted pairs ,,
Another is if your a buried phone service and you happen to have a fairly long run on somewhat level ground, if you could get to the other end , you have the ability to make a somewhat functional beverage antenna if your able to install the small parts on either end of that pair of wires.

[jcassity]

here is a drawing of my original 5 position rotary switch which i changed to a 10 a few weeks ago.

one thing i learned about radios with "loop" antennas.  I asked here how can i integrate a loop antenna radio to a long wire to get better reception.  i tinkered a little bit and i learned that if you simply solder a 2 or 3 foot long wire out the back which is soldered to one side of the loop antenna , you nearly double its ability to pick up stations. 
This is a matter of trial and error but it worked two times for me ,, on a small GE and on a Zenith, both with loop antennas. 

 if this short hanging piece of wire is moved around or adjusted it helps the signal as well.  In my case i noticed that if turn on my GE and rotate my rotary switch to pos 2, somehow the GE couples with the early 90's era magnavox for the best reception.  i still have no clue why since the little GE is not even on the rotary switch.

[mikethedruid]

If your radio has a loop antenna, just make another loop on that loop of about 3 - 5 turns of smallish insulated stranded wire. I use number 24 PVC insulated wire for this. Make it the same size as the windings of the original loop and tape it over the old windings. make sure you have leads on the end long enough to extend out of the cabinet. Then just hook your antenna to one end, and ground to the other. This will GREATLY increase what the radio picks up. If your old loop is the kind that is woven in and out of cuts in a cardboard or beaverboard form, just weave the new windings on that outside of the original windings.

[462ron]

I thought of this out of necessity. I don't really have the room for an outdoor longwire antenna plus no way of getting one up high short of using a utility bucket truck then it hit me while outside surveying the situation. I saw that phone line running about 70' from the house to the pole and bam, the wheels started a turnin! The rest is history.

Ron

[Stall-U-Rated]

They disconnected the original line from our house when they ran a new pair to the pole back in 06. And all this time it never dawned on me to use it till i read this thread..  Works like a charm....

Kudos!!  

Steve

[jcassity]

here is a way to safely "GO HIGH" for an exterior long wire.

Or what some would say a redneck way of doing things i guess. 

This is how i did mine to get up higher but i used metal pipe , i felt like PVC would be to floppy in the wind. The same process for metal pipe, and using conduit would be ok to.

secure insulator on one end of your single or multi section pre glued pvc pipe.
Tie off antenna wire to your insulator and let out some slack off your spool which lies on the ground for the remainder of this process.
drill two holes in your first PVC Pipe section spaced apart as you see fit.
Go up and drill a lag bolt hole in the highest to reach location on your surface.
go back down ladder
Tie a rope to the end of your pvc pipe
you carry your PVC pipe end up with you (with your tools in your back pocket)and secure with a lag bolt and washer making it only snug.
Go back down
relocate your ladder then pull on your rope to swing your pvc pipe "UP" and tie your rope off to keep the pvc pointed "UP".
go back up ladder Add your second bolt through your second pvc pipe hole to your surface but just get it started.
untie your rope then finish off your second bolt.
Your antenna wire is now unspooled itself and your ready to do the other work to get the wire into a building.

you dont want your antenna wire to be touching anything at all but the insulator.

[EdHolland]

Per Ron's request on Page 1, I will write up the details of antennas and connection schemes used for my sets ancient and modern. Not forgotten

[jcassity]

this is gonna be good.

Ed, if you do it right, i suggest it becomes a sticky here.. besides everyone else on the planet is going to stumble across your topic here.

The title will cause future searches to stumple on your work ,, i suggest the title includes words of

Tube Radio, Vintage, Long wire, Best way, increase reception , Shortwave and AM,


Hopefully you will address multiple radios on one long wire to include ways to work around sets that have a hot chassis,,, or whatever its called when you have voltage on your long wire when you turn the set on.

[EdHolland]

If I might suggest, lets continue to pull all the ideas together (I certainly don't have all the answers) and then the material can be condensed into a sticky/article. The last part, obviously at the discretion of the Phorum admin.

One aspect that would need to be covered is safety - where and where not to put antennas and wiring; nearby electrical services; lightning protection; grounding (and regulations). There are already lots of ham radio resources for this subject, and a good deal of it is relevant to any radio collector/user.

[Paul Philco322]

We are having 70 mph wind gusts tonite makes you think about how durable is your antenna rig.

Paul