"BEN RITCHEY" bravely wrote to "MIKE ROSS" (03 Jul 05  16:48:39)
 --- on the heady topic of "Re: Antenna"

 BR> * An ongoing debate between Mike Ross and Ben Ritchey rages on ...

 | MR> There may be an interaction with the metal eaves depending on their
 | MR> orientation and proximity. It might be possible to control this by

 BR> The wire will parallel the flashing about 2-3" away (?). ====

That is not so good if it is a long run. Try to avoid parallel runs
otherwise your flashing will become an unpredictable part of the
antenna. Find a different routing perhaps? At worst a coax line might
be used to connect to the antenna and avoid any interaction but with
an unknown impedance for both radio and antenna it would require a
match box to tune them. Best to avoid creating more complications!

BTW I re-read my earlier reply and noticed I wrote the insulation
would make the electrical length seem shorter. That was wrong, it will
make it seem slightly longer and in a critical case it might need to
have the ends trimmed down. Either way the effect is negligible with
thin wire guages and can thus usually be ignored.


 | MR> The real trick with any antenna is to have a proper grounding system.

 BR> Should/can I just tie circuit ground to an Earth ground? AC or DC side
 BR> tap? As you can see I know just enough about electrons to be dangerous

If there is no specific ground terminal on the receiver then the
simplest thing would be to clip an aligator jumper to the battery or
earphone socket ring. Use the shortest ground path possible. Avoid
using the AC powerline ground system as it has all sorts of noise
induced into it. If the plumbing is copper it might be suitable.

Speaking of dangerous electrons, try and take lightning and static
charge build up into account for your antenna system. i.e. Leave the
antenna disconnected from the receiver and grounded when not in use.

 M*i*k*e

... It was clearly and simply explained on page 542,839,721 of the docs.
--- Blue Wave/DOS v2.30