and I am not very impressed. Here's the one I built from the DXer's
Toolbox...
First of all cut two pieces of 2 inch X 1 inch timber, each piece measuring
25 inches long. Half along each of these legs cut a piece out of the legs
exactly the size of the other leg, so that the two legs can be screwed
together in the form of an X. Then cut 4 pieces of timber 6 inches long,
these are screwed on the end of each leg to form feet, the primary wire
coil is also wound around these four feet.
Firmly fix in place one end of the 120 foot length of wire to the centre of
the frame, where the two legs cross, feed the wire to the end of one of the
legs, and wind it around the four feet for 18 turns, then feed the
remaining wire back to the centre of the frame using the same leg as where
the wire began, this is most important, both ends of the wire must go from
the winding coil to the frame centre along the same leg. Affix a tuning
capacitor salvaged from an old radio to the centre of the frame, where the
two legs cross, using glue or whatever, I use two small nails hammered
into the legs, so positioned to hold the tuning capacitor in place. Then
cut the wire ends to make a neat connection to the tags on the tuning
capacitor and solder the wires in place.
I used the VC sent to me by Mike Stonebridge and used 20 Guage wire.
I tried it last night after I finished it and while it does display a bit of
direction, the signal leaves a lot to be desired. Even local stations were
off by several dB's. I am going to go try it in the daytime in a few
minutes, but I thought I would post this. Any suggestions?
Ira Elbert New, III
Watkinsville, Georgia
"Proudly Serving You Since 1964!"