Does grounding affect shortwave reception on the Tecsun PL 330?

Video #193

[@ambush1sg]

I also have a PL-330. Great little radio! I've done experiments with the excellent ETM. I'll often run 2 or three ETMs one after the other. I always (!) get slightly different numbers of stations that I receive each time. If you were to listen to each hit you get you'll some stations right at the threshold of receiving them. If some of them go down to below threshold on one pass of the ETM then on the next pass it might increase slightly or even go out completely. I like the 330 so much I'm thinking of ordering another. I already have 7 modern shortwave radios & can't decide which other different radio to get & unless I'm convinced that there's one at about the same price & at least as good as the 330 I'm sticking with a winner. My 330 was bought in April of '21. every antenna I have is a sloper from 20' to 50' long in various directions & angles. Each are coax fed with the coax shield grounded at entry to the building.

[@anthonyfranz8317]

Outstanding test and results. Thank you for posting.

[@Homer19521]

Interesting. I hoped for an improved SNR. I was thinking of experimenting on this also using my PAR-SWL antenna. It just dropped to a low priority. Lastly, I am glad you did the "audio" test at the end, as the number of stations may not matter unless they were listenable. Nice watch. I like that band. Couldn't quite see the maker.

[@mcdeadsquirrel]

Excellant!!! Many thanks for this!!!!! !!!

[@sfred]

Glad you liked it!

[@antonioliriololi]

Old radios used to have one plug for the aerial antenna and another plug for the ground antenna

[@devarajans2881]

Try with a 9:1 unun at the long wire end.feed it to 3.5 mm antenna socket

[@arthurwolfram3632]

I love your videos. Your style and presentation are so relaxing to listen to! I had one question on your antenna. Can you tell us where you have positioned your MLA 30 plus antenna? Is it high up in the air on a pole? Or is it closer to the ground, say on a balcony? Does it need to elevated a lot? Thank you!

[@sfred]

I've got it mounted on a wall on my roof deck. I played around with it and that was the lowest noise spot. I expect that it would be better above the roof-line, but this spot works fairly well.

[@SeanFlaherty]

what would be a good ground in a typical home? A water pipe? What did you connect the ground wire to?

[@sfred]

That might work, but mine are plastic. I grounded this one to the box from the dryer outlet. That isn’t ideal but it was the most convenient thing.

[@StratmanII]

Interesting video, thanks for taking the trouble to demonstrate the counterpoise effect on the PL-330! 🙂 I noticed that my PL-330, 320 and 368 radios almost always register 2245 kHz as their first station every time I perform an ETM+ scan. There's nothing transmitting on this frequency (at least, not at my QTH) and it's usual for me to delete this false signal for every hour. It's not a birdie though. I wonder if the ETM algorithm wrongly recognizes 2245 kHz as a valid signal. 📻🤔

[@sfred]

Interesting. My 330 didn’t register 2245 just now.

[@StratmanII]

@@sfred Luck of the draw, I guess. There are no shortwave stations broadcasting on such a low frequency like 2245 kHz, yet my radios tend to register them as valid stations. Sometimes I can hear random and mixed signals - it's as if the PL-330 suffers from images at the lower frequencies.

[@jcmolero71]

I thought it happened only with my unit

[@vineyardsaker6195]

I have a question: what did you connect your aluminum wire to? I am trying to find something to ground my antenna in a room with no pluming anything else to ground to.

[@sfred]

I answered this question here earlier: I grounded this one to the box from the dryer outlet. That isn’t ideal but it was the most convenient thing.

[@Steven-re7xt]

Well took the question to task. And cut a small lug and had care fuly placed a wire on the batt negtave input. Then assembled radio. The effort pays for it selfe. Except around. Hi tension lines. Where a distinct 60 hertz hum is found. But away in camp its better by 25% or more. Tks fer good idea. Odn-1

[@eyadabusharar2457]

Hello I think antenna plug 3.5 should to has two wire one of them for ground, I think there is not need to put ground wire up to main of antennas radio, it has nothing

[@F4LDT-Alain]

Very interesting video that addresses a question I've asked myself several times, thanks. However... sorry if this is nonsense, but shouldn't the receiver itself be grounded? I'd try connecting the antenna to the tip of the jack only and ground the outer part of the jack. Then plug it into the receiver. What kind of antenna is there at the end of this coax cable? this could also be relevant. With a plain long wire antenna, the grounding might make a difference. I have plans to give it a try soon anyway.

[@sfred]

It might help to ground the receiver, but that would be different than grounding the antenna (I think).

[@toddk968]

@@sfred I automatically thought you would ground the antenna to the receiver, as in, attach the black clip to the ring of the headphone or antenna jack.

[@Steven-re7xt]

I remember the the days of phone dial stops hi hi. Good antenna.+ground =. So my mod is to put a stub connected to the radio chassis.duping the antenna.

[@MAGNETAR-187]

You can't ground a pl330 because it uses a 1020 mAh bl5c battery!

[@kellyklaask7su990]

Interesting video. I have been wondering the same thing! Oh, and I see you're a fountain pen guy! Another fine hobby. I've even turned a few. de K7SU

[@burkena]

When you figure it out. Im out at 8 minutes Make another video