[aklug] Re: Radio antenna help

On 12/06/2016 04:31 PM, Hans Thompson wrote:
> Hi everyone. I've been a lurker for a couple months now.
>
> I'm looking for help with optimizing an antenna for software defined
> radio. I know this isn't related to linux but I'm sure there are
> folks out there with some experience that I can learn from.
>
> Thanks.
> Hans Thompson

Hi Hans -

I have a beaglebone black with a 7" LCD cape running Debian and gqrx. I
plug a FunCube Pro+ into it.

For UHF/VHF I just grab an SMA HT antenna and go. Putting gqrx into AM
mode and walking around gives you a poor-man's RFI detector.

For HF, I have a UHF -> SMA pigtail and I plug it into my HF antenna,
but really all you need is wire, and a lot of it. One receiving antenna
I've tested is a 90-foot roll of RadioShack 20-gauge black wire. Solder
one end to the positive terminal of a UHF adapter, and put the other end
into a convenient tree (with a little weight behind it). Thinking about
it, I suppose that I could have soldered the wire to a male SMA adapter
and dispensed with the pigtail, but aside from that a 90-foot roll of
wire isn't "optimized" for much.

I've thought about making a small loop for ARDF. The beaglebone could
make a pretty decent 80m/2m combo detector just by swapping antennas.

But what are you optimizing the antenna for?

73,

James
KL2ZZ

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Received on Tue Dec 6 18:37:41 2016