trio r-600 simple antenna

cravings

hello all


like many i'm at home a lot these days.. don't really know anything about radio, but i have a trio r600 (same as this kenwood http://www.rigpix.com/kenwood/r600.htm) and it seems to work, but i've never got anything other than weird noises out of it..


so just for curiosity's sake, is there any simple combination of wire i could attach to this thing just to see what it could receive?


i have a few lengths of old coax, some satellite cable.. i've probably more bits of random wire than a lot of people lying around.. have a few of those big screw on coax connectors that fit in the back of this too.


hope you're all doing ok these days. any simple laymans tips for me?


thanks

Any radio is only as good as the antenna.

You could try a length of wire around 40-80 meters long, Connect to the wire input, a good ground is essential, 4-8 foot ground rod as short as possible.

It's as simple as that really but don't forget the ground it's very important to reduce static and noise.

Keep the antenna as high as you can and as far from any house and power lines as possible.

Unless the radio is broken there is tonnes to listen to on LW/MW/SW including the amateur radio bands.

The coax connector is meant for 50 Ohm cable not tv coax which is 75 ohm.

There are other commercial antennas for LW/MW/SW and ones I highly Recommend are the Bonito antennas, they cost far more than long wires but these are excellent antennas, these would connect to the 50 ohm coax input.

I have the Bonito MA305, Bonito Megaloop FX and the Megadipol, the MA305 is a tiny whip antenna that blows me away each time I use it, the performance is truly astounding for such a tiny antenna and compares to an antenna many many times it's size.

I have 2 online SDR radios, one using the Bonito Megaloop FX and the MegaDipol.

You can listen to them here and should give you a good idea of what to expect to hear on LW/MW/SW.

http://emeraldsdr.ddns.net:8074/

http://emeraldsdr1.ddns.net:8073/

It's a really cool hobby, catching some signals from thousands of kms away can be really fun. Listen to the Amateur radio bands, Use USB/LSB for these or the voice will sound funny.

Here's a good site with a list of Commercial stations. https://www.short-wave.info/index.php

Drag the little red dot to Ireland, refresh and it should turn green, you can search all stations that are currently on air or go through the list of stations and see if they are transmitting. On the right the green signal bars represent the signal you should expect for Ireland.

Have fun and if you like it at all you should get your ham radio licence, everything you need to study for the exam is here https://www.irts.ie/cgi/st.cgi?study

Exams are held every May and November. If you wanted to book May you should now, chances are it might be cancelled due to the Caronavirus.

cravings

hey man, thanks for reply.


so ok.. 40 to 80 meter wire is quite long.. not as simple as sticking a coat hanger in so hehe.


so let me break this down into simpler terms for me so.. when you say the "wire input" you mean the terminal marked 500ohm? not the 50 ohm one. so that's a single core cable so to speak. does it need to be thick or anything?


"4-8 foot ground rod as short as possible"... can't just tie to electrical ground? rod physically hammered into the ground? this isn't boding well for using this thing upstairs so hehe.


i've sort of half considered learning more about radio over the years.. i have a few bits and pieces here i sort of inherited from an old radio buff.. few boxes of old practical wireless magazine, and some old test equipment and stuff.


thanks again for reply.. just need some clarification on the wire etc. this is looking like more of a logistical pain in the arse than i hoped.. was hoping could just attach something to it to make it work hehe.

dxhound2005

Any piece of wire should get you some signals if you know where to listen. Connect it to the 500 ohm terminal first, to see what you get. If you are getting weird noises, then you must have some sort of antenna attached. No antenna would just give you white noise.

Attach some bit of wire, and tune to 252 kHz for RTE Radio 1. That is Long Wave. At night Medium Wave 531 to 1602 in 9 kHz steps should be full of signals. The international broadcast bands on Shortwave are on various frequencies. Try the 49 Metre Band at night 5800 to 6200 in 5 kHz steps.

The picture here shows an antenna connected with coax. You could even try a bit of wire in that socket to see what you can hear. If you are in a typical urban home, expect to hear a lot of electrical noise obscuring all but the strongest signals, unless you have a proper antenna.

https://www.fenu-radio.ch/Kenwood_R-600-en.htm

Get that wire outside and up high as possible and as far from any house as you can.

I meant keep your ground wire short as possible.

Log into my SDR radios I linked to above to give you an idea as to what you should hear.

orm0nd

cravings wrote: »

hey man, thanks for reply.


so ok.. 40 to 80 meter wire is quite long.. not as simple as sticking a coat hanger in so hehe.


so let me break this down into simpler terms for me so.. when you say the "wire input" you mean the terminal marked 500ohm? not the 50 ohm one. so that's a single core cable so to speak. does it need to be thick or anything?


"4-8 foot ground rod as short as possible"... can't just tie to electrical ground? rod physically hammered into the ground? this isn't boding well for using this thing upstairs so hehe.


i've sort of half considered learning more about radio over the years.. i have a few bits and pieces here i sort of inherited from an old radio buff.. few boxes of old practical wireless magazine, and some old test equipment and stuff.


thanks again for reply.. just need some clarification on the wire etc. this is looking like more of a logistical pain in the arse than i hoped.. was hoping could just attach something to it to make it work hehe.

http://www.radiomanual.info/schemi/KENW_RX/R-600_user.pdf

page 3 of the manual gives a bit of info


if you re using a wire tuned for a specific freq. or band use the 50 ohm terminal

if you're using a random length of long wire use the 500 Ohm

any light cable or wire will do for receive