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Hi I have a antenna question. I found this AM antenna from http://www.kenneke.com/. Has any one tried this antenna out? What is the range of it?
Total posts : 45366Are you referring to the antenna that has a small metal box and a length of green wire attached to it?
It’s advertised as a Part 15 AM antenna for $69.95.
If that’s the one, I think you could do better building the one shown on the SSTRAN website at THIS LINK.
Total posts : 45366Yes that is the one I am talking about.
Total posts : 45366Will the one from sstran work with a talking house.
Total posts : 45366I use the Talking House transmitter. Before I was able to obtain the Talking House remote ATU, I used a homebrew antenna similar to the one featured by SSTRAN.
I’ve built both base loaded and center loaded antennas and they worked fairly well.
There may be some tinkering required to obtain the proper match to the transmitter but it can be done.
I can’t say the antenna you’ve found won’t work. But, for starters, how do you plan to use it? Will it be inside or outside? If outside how will the wire be supported? If inside, unless you will locate it some distance from the transmitter to gain a height advantage, the Talking House built in tuner with wire antenna will probably do as well.
Don’t be discouraged by the limited range when using the built in antenna tuner and wire. At some point you will put an antenna outside. My antenna is on the roof. I can hear my signal easily up to .4 miles away.
Total posts : 45366You have a lot of good points. I was going to place the antenna outside. My current set up is that i have my talking house transmitter in my room which is on the top floor of my house. The transmitter is on my desk and the wire antenna run up my wall and then across the ceiling. You can hear it good for about 0.2-0.3 miles. Then it gets all static and hard to hear. The max range is 0.5 miles. So the antenna you show on your site can be used with the talking house?
Total posts : 45366I had that antenna connected to a Metzo transmitter. I don’t know what the feedpoint impedance is but it worked “OK”, a relative term.
A base loaded antenna would afford you a way to adjust the feedpoint by tapping up the coil to match the transmitter impedance. Likewise, tuning the antenna for resonance you can adjust the tap on the coil for the antenna rod connection.
I really like the Talking House ATU antenna as tuning is very simple. Problem is you don’t see them on Ebay very often. From the manufacturer they are expensive.
I suppose the antenna you are looking at could be used as a tuner attached to a rod antenna instead of the wire. I’d be curious to see what’s in the box. Probably a slug tuned coil. I have some old broadcast oscillator slug tuned coils around here somewhere. Maybe I’ll try that, reinventing the Talking House ATU.
Total posts : 45366I looked at the antenna from SStran and it will note work with the talking house. There was a guy who use to build them. I found his old website and on it it says “This will not work with Talking House”. I wanted to get the ATU from the manufacture but it is way to make money. I emailed RadioBrandy to see what they think of the antenna from http://www.kenneke.com/. They are currently testing it at they campus. I also found this website (http://www.northcountryradio.com/Kitpages/am88.htm) shows you all the different types of antennas. I may look into a long wire antenna.
Total posts : 45366“Will the one from sstran work with a talking house.”
Well, you must hook it up to the “External” antenna connector, which, strangely, is a 75ohm F connector, like for cable TV. The standard wire antenna the TH unit comes with is for wideband application, it doesn’t exactly match whatever frequency you’re on … the internal tuner for it is different than connecting an external tuned system.
The antenna you’re considering will probably match tuning better and get you some more range. I’d say you’d have to connect it as an external antenna. Not sure if it uses a matching network inside.
There is an almost overwhelming amount of antenna and antenna-related threads on this forum. Before you make a final decision, you should probably peruse as much of it as you are able to digest.
Also, keep in mind there are a number of other factors which affect efficiency and range of midband AM … the main one being your ground … which also has a ton of threads here.
Total posts : 45366The SStran antenna won’t work with the Talking House. There was a guy who use to build them and on his website it said “This antenna is not compatible with Rangemaster or Talking House Transmitters.” I am going to look into a long wire antenna.
Total posts : 45366The Talking House has two outputs, the auto tuner and the output for the external tuner and antenna.
A ten foot wire is the best thing to use on the auto tuner output as the auto tuner is designed for that kind of load.
The external antenna output can be connected to any experimental antenna, long wire or base loaded.
IIRC the Kenneke antenna was disassembled and reviewed on another site but the seller asked the reviewer to take the info down, saying the information about the circuit was proprietary. It is as the earlier poster guessed, a slug tuned coil matched to a short wire antenna inside a project box.
I don’t really care for the slug tuned approach, I prefer to reduce the number of coil windings to keep resistance to the signal at a minimum.
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