I made an HF Dipole for free! Reception was good on my AirSpy HF+ Discovery SDR!

[@apc108]

I'm very glad to see you recycle old copper like this. We don't need to spend a fortune on antennas. Baluns, as I'm sure many people will find out, can become a slightly contentious issue! For example, are they baluns or ununs? There are many Ham experts on the issue, but of course they are mostly focused on transmission. You usage here would suggest a balun I think, as you are balancing two sides of the dipole. I have used the Nooelec 9:1 balun and also the cheap Chinese knockoffs and they work good, but it's not hard to wind your own on small and cheap type 43 toroids. (You only need small ones and not the huge expensive ones used by Hams for transmission lines. 140-43 or 114-43 are easy to use. If you are good with your fingers, 82-43 or even 50-43 are possible. They are very cheap). There are fancy ways to do it or the simple old fashioned way of say 27 windings on the antenna/ground side and 9 for the feedline. A 3:1 ratio in windings translates to a 9:1 balun/unun. I have wound ununs like this for all 5 HF antennas in my garden and the improvement in signal quality is absolutely outstanding. I weatherproof the wound toroids with self-sealing rubber tape. I have yet to make a good balun for my one HF dipole. I understand that the balun should be wound 2:1, perhaps 20 on the antenna side and 10 for the feedline, giving a 4:1 ratio. Maybe it's just my rubbish winding skills, bit I have so far always ended up with a worse signal. I've been in the hobby for about 6 years now and discovering how baluns/ununs can increase the signal to noise ratio was a very important discovery and I'd encourage everyone to look into this aspect.

[@FrugalRadio]

Thanks for sharing your experiences Alan. It's great to hear about your usage of baluns and home brew transformers. Happy winding!

[@lambdaprog]

Receive antennas are a completely different ball game than TX. The key to good results is to optimize the noise figure of the entire system: Antenna + impedance matching + transmission line + receiver. A small (electrically short) antenna could outperform a full-size antenna if it is coupled with the right electronic ingredients. There is still a lot to be done in this area, especially with newly available high performance silicon that is becoming mainstream.

[@apc108]

@@lambdaprog I'm interested in where you might be going with this. I've tried various PA0RDT derivatives, including two of the Bonito whips. I went on an exploration in DXing NDBs at one stage and found in the end that a 9m vertical copper wire with a 9:1 balun/unun and an RF choke is just as good as the Boni-Whip. I know you have been testing amps to go with the Youloop and I'm looking forward to seeing how that turns out. The Youloop definitely brings signals out from the noise that are hard to catch otherwise. I'm a big Airspy fanboy, like Rob here!

[@lambdaprog]

@@apc108 Thank you for the kind words. I went through many revisions of the YouLoop (and YouTwist) preamps. The challenge here is to achieve a very low noise figure in the amp at High Z while having enough rejection in the FM and higher bands. This requires some tricks to shape the frequency response using group delays and without using any filters that may add some insertion loss and ruin the High Z impedance. We're getting there eventually. Stay tuned!

[@MairinGoBragh]

yup. you only need the bigger ones if you're using the balun/unun for transmit. I'm currently building a 9:1 unun using a pair of FT240-43 cores ganged up with electrical tape so I can get to significant fractions of QRO. Total cost invested in the unun so far: $35 USD.

[@TwstedTV]

I love videos like this. Very frugal which is great for us mortal frugal hard working people. 😄👍

[@lambdaprog]

Excellent and most welcome video. This illustrates how easy it is to build a working receive antenna on the cheap.

[@FrugalRadio]

Yep!

[@tony1961]

Hi Rob. Found your channel by mistake, great video brings bad many fond memories when I was a Ham back in the late 70's. Did the same trick using some old coax whilst I worked as Security for the Reading Festival in 1979. Used 27MHz, measured the length, split the core and shield into 3.4m lengths, then asked the onsite Busby engineer (it was still the GPO in those days) to attach one end to the top rung of the telegraph pole next to my security caravan. Many happy hours allegedly working! Will explore more of your channel. Cheers.

[@FrugalRadio]

Great to hear from you Tony. Welcome to the channel :-)

[@mxcollin95]

You have an awesome channel man! So glad I found it…been learning tons!

[@FrugalRadio]

Thanks. I'm glad it is helpful.

[@landotomunn9048]

Hey, would like to thank you, this video guided me to make my first HF antenna for SWL with sdr. I was missing space so just made a 5m with some antenna coax 75ohms and a cheap nooelec balun. Got some nice results on the 20 meters band ! So yeah, thanks to you for this idea ^^

[@FrugalRadio]

That's great to hear. It's amazing what you can pick up on HF without having to spend a bunch of money!

[@landotomunn9048]

@@FrugalRadio Was pretty astonished when I heard some CW from Russia! Taking baby steps in this hobby ^^

[@FrugalRadio]

Welcome to a great hobby! There is so much this antenna will enable you to hear. Well done in taking these steps to get going 😃

[@Tommy_Boy.]

Great video & great information Rob! Love the SDRs!! Working here on adding some broadcast filters to assist the RTL-SDR. Cheers! 👍⚡📻

[@FrugalRadio]

Very good. Those filters can be lifesavers!

[@phmoffett]

Great video and antenna demo. Thanks for including all the sample received audio.

[@FrugalRadio]

You're welcome. It appears helps to hear the results!

[@danedewaard8215]

Great and enjoyable content!!! Thanks for the time and effort to put this video together!

[@FrugalRadio]

You're welcome!

[@midwestscanner]

Frugal how many American feet is your 2 wires??

[@EverydayJ1786]

Amazing as always Rob ! Keep up the great content ! . Happy Canada Day as well 🇨🇦

[@FrugalRadio]

Happy Canada Day to you too Jordan. Hope you have a great day with the family!

[@EverydayJ1786]

Rob . I just ordered the version 2 fully enclosed balun . I plan on having it in my attic of my home (which is about 15 from the ground) . I predict I'll have about 20ft of wire on each side of the balun . I currently have a youloop antenna up in my attic . I'm not very happy with the performance. Sure hope this noolec Balun will do the trick

[@FrugalRadio]

I expect you'll get a stronger signal with some good wire and the balun. Let us know how it works out!

[@janoskonya5521]

It is always a good idea to save some copper from trash. :) Though it is not free - due to the balun - it is still very cheap. Having a 9:1 balun, I would rather use it for a long wire antenna instead dipole. (One contact for antenna wire and one for grounding. Impedance matching is better this way.) One more good step ahead for a brave hobbist is making a trap antenna. The necessary components would not make it more expensive. I really like your videos. Keep making them! :)

[@FrugalRadio]

Thanks for your comments. I had also considered a long wire...

[@janoskonya5521]

​@@FrugalRadio As you know, a "random" long wire may work well with an antenna tuner. I think, simplicity is best if possible, Avoiding the use of a tuner - I'd tune the wire to a desired band and hoping that it works on harmonics too. (fingers crossed) ...or as I mentioned: also a trap antenna can be a solution. I really respect the efforts for the community, thanks! PS: The balun you have, contains ESD protection, too. Those who are thinking of making a diy balun, do not forget using the well known protections. Long live the SDR receiver! :)

[@thewind-ne8rh]

Yet another great and informational video thanks. Rob

[@FrugalRadio]

You're welcome!

[@Olli_Kuhta]

Thank you. I'm going to try a similar system next week.

[@FrugalRadio]

Have fun!

[@MairinGoBragh]

put the balun in a project box, run a short wire to bolts on either side, plus a loop on top to hang it, and then a coaxial connector on the bottom that connects to the balun, allows you to mount it anywhere without worry about the elements. just saying. You can put it together for $20-30 in parts plus the balun itself.

[@cranefly23]

I have enjoyed, and continue to enjoy, listening to aircraft on HF out over the Atlantic. I have never been able to get into the HAM Radio stuff though. I just don’t find what they talk about very interesting - sorry! I appreciate there are restrictions by way of license conditions on what they can discuss. My garden isn’t very big, so getting 20 metres of wire out would be impossible. Perhaps you could show us some ideas for compact HF antennae, please. I used a centre-fed dipole with random unequal length elements, and it was still pretty amazing what I was able to receive. Thanks for another really interesting video. 👍

[@FrugalRadio]

For compact antennas on the HF band, loops are recommended. You can see the YouLoop I demonstrated in another video. However you need a high sensitivity receiver for it to work well. The MLA-30 is another popular loop, owing to its low price. It is an active loop however. If funds allow, take a look at the Wellbrook loops, and if you'd like to experiment you could try a Loop on Ground (LOG) antenna. You would need to make a square with about 15' on each side so that will depend on ground space. While the gain is low for LOG antennas, the amount of interference (QRM) is also very low. Adding a balun, like the NooElec one should improve the reception for you with unequal lengths of wire.

[@cranefly23]

@@FrugalRadio I have a JRC NRD-535 HF Receiver, which, when I purchased it new quite a few years ago, was considered to be pretty much the ‘bees knees’! It’s still a superb piece of kit, but like all the others, is only as good as the antenna it’s connected to. Thanks for your comments.

[@FrugalRadio]

Yes those JRC receivers are very nice units. I used to dream of owning one when I was a teenager!

[@Devo_gx]

I think for the CBC Radio Calgary signal you were tuned to 1010 AM. 660kHz is CFFR. Can't wait for the weather to warm up so I can try my HF+ Discovery outdoors. Way too much interference indoors here using a YouLoop

[@FrugalRadio]

Could be. I don't monitor much broadcast. Hopefully you enjoy the HF combo outdoors this Summer!

[@Devo_gx]

@@FrugalRadio it did sound more like CBC (I'm in Calgary so know our stations quite well. All good though - definitely going to subscribe as well

[@someoneintheback5939]

At around 8:40 what is that sweeping signal that starts around 6.950 MHz? Very curious to know!

[@FrugalRadio]

The sweeping signals are usually ionosondes. www.sigidwiki.com/wiki/Ionosonde

[@chrispowell3664]

Great video. Yes the Ham bands were busy this weekend. It was field day. 73 AE0IY.

[@FrugalRadio]

Did you participate in Field Day Chris? How were the contacts?

[@TheGeeMan]

I've got a spool of 30m cable (with single threaded copper core) sitting in the shed doing nothing, an RTL-SDR and a friend gave me one of his spare 9:1 baluns, any advice as to what I can do with it? I don't have any Ham it Up ,or Airspy HF type stuff yet. Not sure if I should cut the 30m cable into two 15m cables and make a dipole, or turn it into a long wire. I'm still learning the ropes here, it's all new to me.

[@FrugalRadio]

You could do either. I would probably go with the long wire, although maybe cut off a few meters to place on the other end of the balun. You'll also need to use Direct Sampling mode on the RTL-SDR which may pick up a lot of images without a filter. It will be fun to experiment with, but won't be particularly good for HF monitoring I expect.

[@MI7DJT]

Would be fun setting up an 80M dipole in North Belfast. Many questions would be asked lol

[@FrugalRadio]

Ha ha - there'd be some craic, that's for sure!

[@loz9324]

Awesome! I live in an apartment complex and been using a megaloop mla-30+. I have the 1:9 balun as well and out apartment is 2 story with some trees directly out back. Maybe I should sting up a tall dipole!

[@FrugalRadio]

A high dipole or even a random long wire strung up there would make for a great experiment!

[@loz9324]

@@FrugalRadio I'm also very curious if anyone would even notice. The trees actually make our backyard very inconspicuous and the two next door neighbors are cool and rarely go out back. Either way, I'll give it a shot next weekend and let you know the results!

[@FrugalRadio]

I look forward to hearing how it turns out!

[@wintermetalhd]

What sampling mode and AGC settings do you use to listen to Ham phone traffic?

[@FrugalRadio]

I generally don't use AGC. Otherwise, USB above 40m (7MHz), LSB for 40m and below. Normally 2.4 to 3.2 kHz bandwidth when monitoring.

[@FabioSpelta]

Thanks. I'd love to see you showing the sdrangel software, possibly on Linux Thank you if you may consider it.

[@FrugalRadio]

Yes, I am indeed considering it. SDR Angel is on my list for a future episode!

[@KarlWitsman]

Is it better to use a thicker wire like this or a thinner wire? If thicker is better, I might re-work my dipole. Thanks!

[@FrugalRadio]

The thickness makes very little difference for HF. Thin wire works just as well.

[@KarlWitsman]

@@FrugalRadio Thanks! Thin is better for my environment right now, so I am happy to hear this.

[@bmarques333]

Now that's inspiring me into resuming SDR exploration after months without touching it... Of course the conditions here don't help - I live in a ground floor apartment with small windows. Could be worse though, as the neighborhood buildings all have 2-3 floors only.

[@FrugalRadio]

Good to hear you've been inspired. Antennas are everything when it comes to SDRs. You can just string wire around the 4 walls of an apartment and you will be able to pick something up. Shortwave (HF) signals travel well through buildings. The challenge is the RF noise generated from electronics. That tends to ruin things, but using a balun or choke would help. In a noisy RF environment you might want to consider a magnetic antenna like the YouLoop (which you could also make at home, although you'd need a few extra parts). I bought an Airspy one for around $30 and it works well, even indoors. If you search my videos you'll see a couple on it.

[@MrDwadi84]

Good job, I have this balun but older version. My choice for wire was speaker wire. :)

[@FrugalRadio]

Glad to hear your antenna works with the speaker wire and balun. Not a lot of difference between the v1 and v2 balun.

[@MrDwadi84]

@@FrugalRadio I know, it works even connected to copper pipes from heating system. :)

[@FrugalRadio]

Cool. I tried a heating system once too!!! Got to love experimenting with HF!

[@MrDwadi84]

@@FrugalRadio I am now collecting recordings from this setup and will upload this to KZbin soon.

[@toddlittles2786]

is there anyone out there that can explain to how to do dsdplus in detail? i see video's but no one actually shows how to set it up

[@FrassoFra]

Great inspiration! I've found a really cheap balun for cctv cameras and i know that a balun antenna is better for HF but i would like to know if it will work also on the 4M band. I love to do experiments but i don't like to waste money ahaha

[@FrugalRadio]

Finding frugal parts we can work with is all part of the fun. Good luck with the project!

[@WanderScapeFilms]

Hi, brilliant video. Can the balun be collected directly to the Ham It up or does it need to be connected to some coax?

[@FrugalRadio]

As long as it is connected, it shouldn't need coax. The coax just helps you locate the antenna elements further away from possible noise sources and to provide easier installation.

[@WanderScapeFilms]

@@FrugalRadio That's great thanks for your response.

[@RedNeckSurgeyTech]

How will it work on 20 and 40?

[@FrugalRadio]

Worked just fine across the bands, but was not tuned or used for transmit purposes.

[@micromonde]

Hello. How to you figure out the distance for the transmission location?

[@FrugalRadio]

I used Google maps "measure distance" feature.

[@micromonde]

@@FrugalRadio Thanks for your videos. Newbie here. How to you obtain parameters in the first place. Built in SDSHARP? peace from Canada

[@FrugalRadio]

A lot depends on what you want to listen to, and what equipment & antennas you've got. Frugal Radio is in Canada too!

[@micromonde]

@@FrugalRadio ;) HOW do you calculate the distance. What do you use? Latitude, longitude, street address to enter into GOOGLE. Thanks for you patience.

[@FrugalRadio]

support.google.com/maps/answer/1628031?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop will answer your questions 🙂

[@Adam-qd8jh]

Did you ground your dipole? Or no, I’m planning on trying this out soon

[@FrugalRadio]

I didn't as it was just temporarily set up before I moved to another location. But grounding is a very important thing to do!

[@Wayne-Pr]

Great video Rob just wondering was that the 9 > 1 nooelec Balun ? ( I can see (Balun One Nine ) but wasn't sure if that's what it meant. I love Aviation come on mate where was the HF Sel Call Decoder going tom the side or on the next screen :-) All the new SDR Infrastructure is slowly coming together, just waiting on a new 12m lattice mast to arrive, hoping this weekend to get the Inmarsat Ant on the air ( I got called into work last weekend :-( ). Loving the RTL-SDR & the SDRduo I've even got a dedicated dual 21" screen PC for them. Once I get the both of them mastered I'll but another SDRduo and put it on line. Take care and keep up the great video. Rgs Wayne.

[@FrugalRadio]

Cheers Wayne. Yes, it's the v2 NooElec 9:1 Balun. I see some markets still have the v1 available for a few pennies less. Interestingly I don't pay much attention to the SELCAL codes. I don't really need to know them, unless they are tired into a database that will tell me the airframe. Hope you get the chance to play some more radio and do more setup over the weekend!

[@Wayne-Pr]

Ha @@FrugalRadio Rob not sure if you have done them before but if not can you do a video on a / some LNA's if you have any at your disposal ?. I was just looking at the Nooelec Lana - Ultra Low-Noise Amplifier (LNA) Module for RF & Software Defined Radio (SDR) with Enclosure & Accessories. Wideband 20MHz-4000MHz Frequency Capability with Bias Tee & USB Power Options. Rgs Wayne.

[@FrugalRadio]

I actually don't have a wideband one like the Lana, but I use a couple of band specific ones. The NooElec Inmarsat bundle came with one tuned to L band frequencies. And I've got a couple tuned for other satellite ranges (137 MHz & 1.6 GHz). I also have an RTL-SDR blog one for 1090 MHz ADS-B. The nice thing about these frequency specific ones is that they also have filters built in and run on bias tee voltage. Great for urban RF environments. I've yet to purchase a wideband version though.

[@cybersean3000]

That device is actually an Unun, not meant for balanced antennas. If you cut the black wire the colored wire to 10.8m, and cut the black wire to 5.33m and lay the black wire on the ground, you may improve reception. Recommended lengths for the colored wire in feet (sorry mate) are 29 35.5 41 58 71 84 107 119 148 203 347 407 423.

[@FrugalRadio]

Thanks for this. Yes, my antenna was somewhat balanced already.

[@Kaptainkneemow]

I just recently subscribed to your channel. You make very informative videos. I'm new to SDR and put up a 100ft single wire antenna but strangely I'm receiving AM radio stations all the way into higher frequency bands (25MHz+) and some stations are even being duplicated. Why is this happening and is there a fix? Thanks

[@FrugalRadio]

Hi Vince, and welcome to the channel. You are receiving interference from the AM Broadcast stations, which means it would be good for you to use a filter. I made a video about filters and how they work, which you can watch at kzbin.info/www/bejne/fJWwo6Sti9WMnZo Some of the step up SDRs have filters built in, such as the RSP1A by SDRPlay, and the AirSpy products. You might also find FM broadcast interference - I have to use a filter on some of my SDRs & scanners to block those signals from appearing in the aircraft band. It generally depends how close you are to the transmitters, but antenna tuning also plays a part.

[@Kaptainkneemow]

@@FrugalRadio Thank you! I will check out your video. Keep up the great content.

[@catalinalb1722]

Hi! Dose the thickness of the wire matter?

[@hfvhf987]

No

[@ryanleathers9025]

The practical answer is no, but if you want to get into the weeds study up on "skin effect". Size actually does matter, as it will contribute to how broad banded the antenna is, among other things. But unless you are getting to the point where you are carefully engineering a RX antenna, don't worry about it. Just get some wire in the air and experiment with position and length.

[@FrugalRadio]

No, the thickness doesn't make a big difference for HF schemas. For VHF & UHF it makes a little more difference.

[@samsousayt]

Is that a Bunker ?

[@FrugalRadio]

A repurposed shipping container!

[@ynot6473]

the easiest "balun" to make is a choke balun, 240 size 43 mix toroid (£6 ish) 8 turns of the coax wound on to it (about 1 meter) and that's it, done! it will work from 80 meters to 10 meters.

[@FrugalRadio]

Excellent!

[@RavenwoodAcres]

Thanks for the video, very informative. I also like your or whosoever Jeep Cherokee that is.

[@FrugalRadio]

Ah, the old Cherokee. She just keeps running!

[@Tonyv1951]

Not sue that a 9:1 balun on a dipole is a good idea. That would far better match the 50 ohm coax without the 9:1 balun.

[@FrugalRadio]

You might be right. I have actually tried it without the balun.

[@midwestscanner]

So how long is it cut in US feet?

[@FrugalRadio]

Multiply the number of meters by 3.28 for the length in ft.

[@frequencywatchers]

Great Video, Similar To My Setup, BUT Difrent In A Big Way Because My Antenna Starts From My Attic And Coax Goes Down In Middle, Well.. , Is It Posible You Join The Disocrd And Take A Look At My Setup Please? I Don`t Know How My Antenna SHOULD Be For 3500MHz And Up To 24Mhz Because There Are The Hams In my Country And Neighbor Countries I Would Love To Listen, But My Antenna BAARELY Picks Them Up, I Listened To WEB.SDR That Is 200KM Away From My Location On The Oposite Side From Russia From My Location AND IT PICKS RUSSIAN HAMS UP BETTER THEN MY SETUP So I Have N CLUE What Is My problem, I Have MsPaint Pictures With My Setup, I Would Be So Thankful If Anyone Could Spent A Minute Of Your Precious Time And Help Me With This One ANd Tell Me What Im Doing Wrong, I Really Want To Listen To The Frequencies Because Then I Will Set Up One SDR As A Web.Sdr And After That I WIll Work On Much More Web.Sdrs To Put Out.. Okey, The Link Too The Discord Page Is This - discord.gg/Zv8HAAtu6m