Slinky antenna

[funken]

I saw on Ebay slinky antennas for shortwave. Does anyone know if this set-up works? I have limited space in my backyard and I'm on vacation.
If this works I was thinking about taking a trip to Toys-R-Us.

Happy Holidays!

Funken

Hello Funken,

I use one of those slinky antennas as my primary shortwave/medium wave antenna. I bought one during the summer and was literally shocked at how well it can pull-in distant signals. I wouldn't use anything else. I have an ICOM-R75 communications receiver and occassionally also use an MFJ-16010 antenna tuner. And, believe it or not, I have my slinky antenna set-up indoors!

The slinkys you see on Ebay have an alligator clip at the end of the wire. The idea is that clip this onto your existing telescoping whip to improve reception. But I don't do this. Rather, I snipped-off the alligator clip and run the slinky as an external antenna.

The beauty of the slinky is that you can stretch it, twist it, even knot it in a variety of configurations to optimize reception for your particular RF situation. (Mine is stretched-out across my really wide apartment window).

I live in Richmond VA -- and with this slinky New York Control of Tran-oceanic flights (3455 kHz USB) literally blows the headphones right-off my head! Extremely strong signal. I could swear they were right next door.

The particular slinky I have is made of brass.

Hope this info helps.

LDL