Back in December I posted a question about ways to receive LF/VLF radio signals. Based on the suggestions made by a number of people here I decided to use my existing Heathkit Mohican receiver and add this upconverter kit from Jackson Harbor:
The kit arrived and was half assembled before I turned on the Mohican, its first power-up in some years; the horrible squeal that erupted from the speaker put a bit of a damper on things. It now appears that replacing the two output transistors (Germanium, no less!) with NTE102As from Mouser will fix that, so I'm thinking about an antenna that might be a little more snesitive to LF signals than the Mohican's built-in whip.
Along those lines, I have a couple of (what I hope are) simple questions that I'm hoping someone can help me get started with.
First, the need for impedance matching between an antenna and a receiver. My understanding is that a resonant halfwave dipole will have an impedance around 73 Ohms; unfortunately, unless I can obtain research funding from the just-passed Congressional Economic Stimulus bill I'm going to have trouble paying for 2.5km of copper wire, some towers, a crateload or two of porcelain insulators,and the land to build it on. (Hey, I promise to dump it back into the economy ASAP. Really! )
So any non-loop antenna I can construct will necessarily be a "short wire" or "electrically small" antenna (two useful search terms). But how does one go about calculating the impedance of a coat hanger or an extension cord ("short piece of wire")?
I've done Google seaarches and read what seemed like the relevant sections of the 2004 ARRL Radio Handbook and their Antenna Book; unfortunately, most authors restrict their discussion to quarter- wave or longer antennae. Any starting points, hints, or references on impedance calculations for less-than-1/10-wavelength antennas will be appreciated.
My other question has to do with how to interpret signal strength. The first "standard reference" transmitter I'll be attempting to receive will be WWVB out of Fort Collins, Colorado (60kHz/5000m). Per the NIST documentation at:
NIST Special Publication 250-67: NIST Time and Frequency Radio Stations: WWV, WWVH, and WWVB
figure 4.5 seems to say that I could reasonably expect to see a signal of at least 100uV/m. Does this mean that I should expect to see 100uV from any one-meter hunk of wire strung out horizontally in the optimum direction? Or is there something more subtle going on I need to be aware of?
Frank McKenney
-- One of the ways to give the impression of an aesthetic performance to those lacking the organ of taste is indeed to put into a work of art the political, religious, or other extraneous satisfactions popular with one or another audience. Particularly, of course, if strongly held. -- Robert Conquest, "The Dragons of Expectation"
-- Frank McKenney, McKenney Associates Richmond, Virginia / (804) 320-4887 Munged E-mail: frank uscore mckenney ayut mined spring dawt cahm (y'all)