Hi all. Just dusted off a cheap Team ME4 radio and put up a half
wavelength ‘silver rod’ antenna. The antenna is screwed onto the side
of the shed, would it improve TX/RX if I were to put some kind of
ground onto it, like a pole down into the ground or perhaps bodge a
ground plane to it?

The radio itself makes me sound like I have a very blocked nose, is
this common with cheap rigs?? Although the old Murphy CBH1500 sounds a
bit worse!

Thanks

peter

networkrail@mailinator.com wrote:
> Hi all. Just dusted off a cheap Team ME4 radio and put up a half
> wavelength ‘silver rod’ antenna. The antenna is screwed onto the side
> of the shed, would it improve TX/RX if I were to put some kind of
> ground onto it, like a pole down into the ground or perhaps bodge a
> ground plane to it?
>
> The radio itself makes me sound like I have a very blocked nose, is
> this common with cheap rigs?? Although the old Murphy CBH1500 sounds a
> bit worse!
>
> Thanks
>
> peter

best to put the 1/2 wave on a 33ft pole
if not at least 20ft
either will make a big dif.

Ooooh! Thanks for the reply.

Putting it up on something like that is out of the question at the
moment, not to mention there are power lines down the one side of my
garden which I am keen to keep anything that main fail away from (it
gets a bit windy up here at times) I’ll look into it and see what I
can do. I do have half of an old silver rod antenna which might be of
some use. Hunn

On Jun 4, 3:15 pm, networkr...@mailinator.com wrote:
> Hi all. Just dusted off a cheap Team ME4 radio and put up a half
> wavelength ‘silver rod’ antenna. The antenna is screwed onto the side
> of the shed, would it improve TX/RX if I were to put some kind of
> ground onto it, like a pole down into the ground or perhaps bodge a
> ground plane to it?
>
> The radio itself makes me sound like I have a very blocked nose, is
> this common with cheap rigs?? Although the old Murphy CBH1500 sounds a
> bit worse!
>
The audio quality you mentioned could be due to rf getting back into
the radio; to prove it is simple and, if you have enough coaxial
feeder between antenna and radio will cost you nothing but a few
minutes. Take the coax cable near the antenna, and coil it up - this
will effect a choke on any current on the coaxial braiding from
getting back to the radio. I used a silver rod years ago, mounted
variously on a wooden fence post and at the top of a mast, for the 10m
band, with the coax coiled up just below the antenna connection to get
rid of rf feedback. It worked for me, hope it works for you too.
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