Topband: Crazy RX antenna Question

[Charles Bibb]

At 09:34 AM 12/15/2011, Steven Raas wrote:

>I live in a big city and all their CATV feed is above ground..behind my
>home running the length of my block ( well over 1000' ) and at about a
>height of 13' is the CATV feed, here goes the crazy question...
>Has any one ever tried to use the SHIELD of their CATV house drop.. for a
>VERY long RX antenna?

I actually tried this at a former QTH.

The short answer is that it didn't work well.  The main reason is 
that your RX will be OVERWHELMED by TV birdies and many other kinds 
of CRUD propagating along that line.

If you situation is anything like mine was, (and I suspect it will be 
worse as I lived in a small town), you will see (hear) similar 
results. When I tried it, all TV's were still analog, so I got very 
strong horizontal sweep harmonics every 15.9 khz or so all along the 
band. I don't know what you'll hear now that TV systems have gone 
digital.  Maybe better, maybe worse.

One thing you should do, however, is NOT attach your RX directly to 
the cable.  Tap on to it through a 2000pf or larger capacitor so as 
to block any induced LF AC or DC voltage present on the line.

Good luck,

73,
Charles - K5ZK