I know nothing about radio. I don't have the science or even the vocabulay to find what I'm looking for. Please understand you are answering to a peasant who still thinks fax machines are amazing.

I bought a Philips 970 radio from a thrift shop last week. It has 2 short wave bands, but no aeriel in jack.

I took some automotive wire, about 4 meters, and strung it along the washing line and got radio romania.

I have a small yard with very limited sky (terraced housing).

I want better reception.

I have some long lath, solid core 1mm copper wire and zip ties.

Do I use the bare solid copper wire?

Do I need it to continue to ground, like a water in pipe or a big nail in the ground?

Should I rig a sort of mast, or cross (easy)?

Does it matter what I hold the wire to the mast with?

I figure if I affix a length of scaffold pole (3ft) to the back garden wall and make the mast round at the bottom, I should be able to rotate it. Will this improve reception.

You need to do some research first so you semi know whats what. Then ask some questions.

How is he meant to do any research when he doesn't know the lingo? He just wants to build a receiving antenna.

Justin, check out something like this:
https://www.hamradiosecrets.com/shortwave-antenna.html

Thanks for understanding about the lingo, wisepranker

OK, I get the sloper anentena. Don't get the bit about wire lengths and frequency. I want as many channels as possible.

It seems I can build an "end" aentena. Don't understand what a 9:1 is or for. Is it imperative?

I intend to build a cross and lead a bare copper wire aroiund it and down the upright to the radio and zip tie it in place. It's a wood cross. Do I need insulators?

justin ball wrote:OK, I get the sloper anentena. Don't get the bit about wire lengths and frequency. I want as many channels as possible.

It seems I can build an "end" aentena. Don't understand what a 9:1 is or for. Is it imperative?

I intend to build a cross and lead a bare copper wire aroiund it and down the upright to the radio and zip tie it in place. It's a wood cross. Do I need insulators?

If you intend to build a cross. Then have out look out your backdoor you'll have a rotary washing line simply just take off the plastic lines insert your wire around it. There you one perfect cross. But do ask your wife first or she will take a fit that you've ruined her washing line.

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justin ball wrote: ↑Mon Sep 28, 2020 10:35 pm Don't understand what a 9:1 is or for. Is it imperative?

It's pretty important. It's a transformer, used to change the impedance of your antenna to match the input impedance of the radio. However, with your basic set-up, you can do without it.

To be frank, with a basic radio like that, you can just connect a few metres of wire to the radio's aerial, and you'll get all the reception that it's capable of. If you attach too much wire, you'll find that a basic receiver will suffer from overload, and you'll find yourself unable to discriminate between stations with the tuning control or you'll find stations appearing at "wrong" positions on the dial.

It's probably a good idea to do some basic reading on the principles of radio reception, and try to get hold of the best radio that you can afford. You'll be quite amazed what you can receive with a reasonably priced radio. Look on Ebay for a secondhand GE SuperRadio - you can get them for a few tens of pounds, and they will give the most amazing results with a wire aerial of just a few metres long!