All-Band Radio Antenna – Is there such a thing?
by David Harvey VK2DMH on Monday, July 13th, 2009 | 2 Comments
I own a National Panasonic D49 multi-band radio receiver. It has three antenna connections on the back. They are for the AM, FM and Shortwave radio bands, and each connector is for a 75 Ohm cable.
I connected each one to a 3 set TV splitter and now have a short piece of RG6 looking for a place to go.
- I realize a long wire antenna is best.
- I wanted to use a wireless antenna set to connect to the incoming TV cable (from dish on roof) which is also connected to an FM jack in the living room (2nd floor apartment) concrete walls etc.
- Is there a wireless setup for radio?
What should I connect to the three antenna jacks on the rear of the set? They are all marked 75 ohms. I can connect them to a common ground. That leaves the center conductor or each.
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OK! It’s very simple!
You need three different antennas, each one for each one of the bands. For AM the best is a long long wire (more than 30 meters) if you have the way to put it, or a ferrite rod with the bobin that can work with a 365 to 430 pF capacitor. For FM you have many options, the simplest of all a folded dipole (300 Ohms) of 1.5 meters long and a balun (300 to 75 Ohms). For SW you can use only one antenna that covers all the bands from 160 to 10 meters, it’s named discone antenna. There are many more options so ask to a HAM and maybe you can obtain better or more complete help.
Forget the three-way splitter, it was designed to share signals from a TV antenna to multiple TV sets. The engineers at Panasonic put three antenna inputs on the back because that is what the radio needs to perform well. It helps if you understand the difference between the AM, FM and SW bands on a multi-band radio receiver like yours. They are nice sets. I had one years back that covered VHF and UHF public service bands and used that before I bought my first radio scanner; but I digress…
The AM ‘band’ covers radio frequency signals from 530 KHz to around 1650 KHz. It is the old local broadcast band, but most stations have moved to the FM band. Use a long wire antenna 100 feet or more to receive these frequencies.
The FM band in most of the world runs from 88-108 MHz. Most of the broadcasts are in stereo, although your radio will only pick them up as monaural (single channel) sound. Use a simple indoor FM antenna here, they are made from 300 Ohm TV twinlead and only cost five dollars or so at most radio stores.
The SW or shortwave bands run from 1.6 MHz up to just below 30 MHz. This covers hundreds of thousands of frequencies and so ‘shortwaves’ are usually broken down into smaller sections of the band. You could split and share from the 100 foot longwire, or you could string out a separate wire antenna for your favorite part of the bands. Try a half-wave or a quarter wavelength wire for the band you want, e.g. the 49m broadcast band would be 49/2 or 49/4 meters = 24.5m (80 feet) or 12.25m (40 feet). The 60m broadcast band needs a 30m or 15m antenna, and the 20m ham band needs a 10m or 5m antenna. (Half-wave/Quarter-wave examples shown.)
But for receiving, not for transmitting, the wire length is not critical at all. Play around a bit and enjoy your radio. And welcome to the world of shortwave listening!
David