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[IRCA] My Ever Evolving Radio Listening Post



My Shortwave listening set up continues to evolve and I thought some people
would like to see what I've been up to . Here's a collage look at pictures
I took today. (Click the imgur.com link nelow)


https://imgur.com/a/6A8Wz


I have honestly had a few people ask what I do/use/how I do it, so I
thought I'd share this.


Let me say this then explain the set up with a few comments..Except for the
Wellbrook antenna amplifier/controller, all the antenna pieces were bought
on amazon. Then me, who is not a handy, patient, instruction reading type
of person put this all together in about 30 minutes the first day I got it.


Thanks to Colin Newell in Victoria, BC, Canada.. Thomas Witherspoon at
SWLing.com and Andy at Wellbrook for answering my incessant quesitons which
encouraged me and propelled me to put this all together.


Considering my location which is 50 feet from a major intersection in town
and just a few blocks from downtown, I do pretty darn good noise and
reception wise.. plus, this has certianly made a HUGE difference in my
reception over the average Wellbrook premade magnetic loop, the W6LVP and
Doxytronics loops.

Top left picture is my radio listening table. The radio is an Icom
IC-746Pro. Om top of it is a Zoom H1 handheld digital recorder with an
audio in port that gets audio from the ICOM's audio out jack.

The small box/speaking looking thing is an Tecsun ICR100 that functions as
an external speaker. On the brown chair is an EmTech ZM 2 antenna tuner. A
DXEngineering HF PreAmp(boosts the signal about 15db) is next to it on the
tbale.

The DXEngineerinf HF Preamp isn't really needed as the Icom radio has it's
own 2 stage amplifier you can select manually, but I sometimes still use it
on weak signals. As well, the Icom also has it's own built in tuner you
manually activate but I still use the EmTech ZM2 antenna tuner as it still
does help a bit on tuning up a signal to be stronger and less fade-y.

The top right picture is my antenna. Single conductor 22 gauge electrical
hook up wire runs up the side of a speaker stand with 1 1/4 inch pvc pipe
jhammed on top for extra height. The antenna wire runs to the top of the
pvc pipe, and goes 25 feet out to another pvc pipe/speaker stand and down
the side..... then two ends of the wire meet in the middle.

The two ends of the wire connect to a Wellbrook ALA100LN antenna amplifier
and then to a antenna/radio interface box.

The bottom left picture is a close up view of my radio listening gear

The bottom right picture is a view of the 30 amp power supply the radio
requires.

The radio and power supply each weigh about 20 pounds. My gear is outside
and is not permanent. I must carry it out when I want to use it and back in
when I am done.
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