Tag Archives: Homebrew Antennas

Scarrafone 2.0: The Homebrew Antenna Evolves

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Giuseppe Morlè, who writes:

Dear Thomas and friends at the SWLing Post,

This is Giuseppe Morlè, IZ0GZW, from Formia, in central Italy on the Tyrrhenian Sea.

In this video, you’ll see the evolution of the “Scarrafone” antenna—this is the Scarrafone 2.0!

I’ve held onto this coil for many years; it was a gift from a friend.

I figured I could improve upon the performance of the previous Scarrafone… and I was right!

A larger coil diameter and an 800 pF variable capacitor make all the difference.

I’ve placed seven screws along the coil to help with tuning across all HF bands.

I didn’t have a proper knob, so I used a sparkling wine cork instead—it works perfectly!

It’s truly an amazing antenna for portable use, and finding the right tuning points is actually a lot of fun.

I hope you all enjoy it!

An update: Adding medium-wave reception

I’ve also made another improvement to the Scarrafone 2.0 antenna by adding another coil for medium-wave reception.

It consists of a plastic electrical conduit pipe containing three ferrite cores, with 30 turns of wire wrapped around it.

At the ends of the windings are the usual alligator clips, allowing me to switch between shortwave and medium-wave reception.

This second video was filmed inside my shack in the early evening.

Thanks, and greetings from Formia!

73,
Giuseppe Morlè, IZ0GZW

The €5 Scarrafone: Giuseppe’s Clever Recycled Antenna

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Giuseppe Morlè, who writes:

Dear Thomas,

I’m Giuseppe Morlè from Formia, in central Italy, on the Tyrrhenian Sea.

This is a creation of mine from 2013, made entirely from recycled materials—it’s a manual antenna tuner for my QRP gear.

Today, I pulled it off the shelf and used it as an antenna itself.

I’ve dubbed it the “scarrafone” (cockroach) antenna.

In the Neapolitan dialect, “scarrafone” means cockroach; since it bears a resemblance to one, that’s the name I gave it.

Even I was surprised by how well it performs as an antenna.

It features a coil made of aluminum wire, equipped with an alligator clip used to find the optimal tuning point.

There’s a 1000 pF variable capacitor, and on the side, an additional banana jack where I can plug in a random-wire antenna to boost the received signal.

The “scarrafone” works very well—even without the random wire—across all HF bands; you just need to find the right tuning point.

On the lower bands, the entire coil is used, adjusted via the variable capacitor.

You can see it in action on my YouTube channel:

The only expense I incurred was 5 euros for the capacitor; everything else is recycled material.

The “scarrafone” works great with portable radios, such as those from Tecsun and others.

I hope this might be of interest to all of you.

Best regards to you and all the friends at SWLingPost.

73, Giuseppe Morlè (IZ0GZW)

Giuseppe’s Homemade “Cassettone Pomodori Loop Antenna”

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Giuseppe Morlè (IZ0GZW), who writes:

Dear Thomas and SWLing Post friends,

I am Giuseppe Morlè from Formia, in central Italy on the Tyrrhenian Sea.

I’d like to introduce you to yet another loop antenna I’ve built using a large crate—the kind that used to hold tomatoes for homemade sauce. It measures 60 x 40 cm.

There are three separate windings wrapped around the crate: 1 turn, 2 turns, and 10 turns of telephone twisted-pair wire, which fits perfectly around the crate.

Two separate variable capacitors are used for tuning—one 1000 pF and one 50 pF. The first tunes frequencies from 500 kHz up to 16 MHz; the second covers 13 to 30 MHz.

Alligator clips are soldered to the ends of each winding, allowing me to switch windings depending on the frequency being used.

I call it the “Cassettone Pomodori Loop Antenna.”

I’ve attached several videos showing tests conducted on my roof during the early morning and evening. I find it performs really well with Tecsun portable radios. In the morning, I could listen to the USA on the 40-meter band with very good signal quality. In the evening, I picked up many European and Mediterranean stations on medium wave. At 16:00 UTC, I was able to hear Radio Taiwan on 1557 kHz with a decent signal.

It’s great fun and didn’t cost a penny—all the materials are recycled.

I hope you all like it.

Best regards to you and all the friends at SWLing Post.

73 de Giuseppe Morlè, IZ0GZW

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Giuseppe’s Clever Homebrew Ferrite Antenna for MW and SW Listening

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Giuseppe Morlè, who writes:

Dear Thomas,
I’m Giuseppe Morlè, IZ0GZW, from Formia in central Italy on the Tyrrhenian Sea.

This is one of my builds from a few years ago: the T Ferrite antenna. It’s a minimal antenna designed mainly for mediumwave, but it also performs well on shortwave.

Inside the tube at the top are two 12 cm ferrite rods with 32 turns of telephone wire wrapped around them—this section is for mediumwave. Then, on the outside of the tube, I added four more turns for shortwave. A variable capacitor of about 1000 pF completes the circuit.

Shortwave is activated with an alligator clip. When the clip is removed, only the mediumwave section is active.

I tested this antenna with my old Trio 9R-59DS from the 1970s—a tube receiver still in perfect condition. To my pleasant surprise, the receiver paired beautifully with the antenna.

These tests were done on mediumwave in the early afternoon yesterday while it was still light outside. With the antenna placed above the receiver inside my shack, I was able to receive stations from across the Mediterranean basin and Eastern Europe, even in areas where the sun had already set. I really enjoy testing this antenna before evening, and I’m very satisfied with its performance.

You can see the results in this video on my YouTube channel:

I hope this will be of interest to the friends in the SWLing Post community.

Best regards to you and to all,
Giuseppe Morlè, IZ0GZW

We always enjoy checking out your homebrew antenna designs, Giuseppe! Thank you!

Simple Wire Antenna: Giuseppe’s Mediumwave DXing Adventures from the Tyrrhenian Sea

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Giuseppe Morlè (IZ0GZW), who writes:

Dear Thomas and Friends of SWLing Post,

I am Giuseppe Morlè from Formia, Central Italy, on the Tyrrhenian Sea.

This time, I want to share a very simple antenna setup for listening to and attempting extreme DX on Medium Waves.

I first saw this antenna in several videos, and many DXers have used it during various expeditions.

For my setup, I used a 15-meter-long wire. At around 11 meters, I formed a small coil with 8 turns, then continued the wire for another 3 meters.

I began with some tests on my balcony by laying the wire flat along the ground for its entire length. I used my small Sony SRF-37V as a receiver. By placing the receiver within the coil of turns, I immediately noticed a significant difference compared to the built-in ferrite antenna.

In the early afternoon, I tuned into a Chinese language broadcast on 1377 kHz. You can watch a video of this experiment on my YouTube channel:

Encouraged by the excellent results, I decided to head to the tourist port of Caposele di Formia the next day in the early afternoon. I set up on the pier overlooking the sea. This time, I laid the wire in an eastward direction — towards the night, where the sun had already set, while it was still high for another two hours on my side.

Once again, I achieved amazing results.

I was able to hear the same Chinese station on 1377 kHz, but this time with much clearer audio than from my balcony, where electrical noise interfered. By the sea, the signal was clean and strong.

After a while, I tuned into VOA broadcasts from Thailand on 1575 and 1395 kHz, both with surprisingly good audio quality. You can see this second experiment here:

Sometimes, all it takes is a bit of wire and a small coil to create an excellent, ground-level antenna — in this case, oriented eastward.

I also tried using my loop cassette and a Tecsun PL-660 but couldn’t hear anything. Yet the little Sony SRF-37V proved itself to be a true “DX killer” on AM — truly impressive.

I even caught a segment of the VOA program “World Today,” discussing the Chinese economy and Southeast Asia.

As the sun set, the DX signals faded, making way for closer European and Asian broadcasters.

I will definitely return with a longer wire to see if this surprising setup can be improved even more.

A warm greeting to all the Friends who follow SWLing Post and to you, Dear Thomas.

73, Giuseppe IZ0GZW

More Reception Videos:

Pavel’s Practical Electronics Homebrew Mediumwave Ferrite Antenna

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Pavel Kraus, who shares the following guest post:

Mediumwave Ferrite Antenna

by Pavel Kraus

This antenna for MW was made according to the instructions from Everyday Practical Electronics magazine, September 2000. The author of the Active Ferrite Loop Aerial construction project is Raymond Haigh.

The antenna was only adjusted mechanically according to my capabilities. Reception on this antenna was tested with receivers Malahite DSP 2 – original, Belka, Qodosen DX 286, AOR 7030+, Eton E1 XM and other receivers. Of course, the antenna does not replace a long wire antenna, but in limited urban conditions its performance is sufficient. I compared the antenna to Garry Thomas’ factory Quantum Loop.

Both antennas work similarly, Quantum Loop has a shielded ferrite rod, it is less susceptible to elmg. interference. Raymond Haigh’s antenna shows a bit more gain, the ferrite antenna is made up of 7 pieces of ferrite rods 20 cm long and 1 cm in diameter. The antenna is not shielded.

The construction of the antenna according to the instructions is not difficult. A Raimond Haigh antenna will definitely improve MW reception, especially for radios without an internal ferrite antenna. Instructions can be found at https://www.worldradiohistory.com/UK/Practical-Electronics/00s/Everyday-Practical-Electronics-2000-09.pdf

Belka Test

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk-ngCQ8TFc

Qodosen DX286 Test

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F77HOJSmu_4

Malahite DSP2 Test

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2dvaCT9z6Y

DICA 2: “The Revenge” – Giuseppe tests his updated homebrew antenna!

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Giuseppe Morlè, who shares the following antenna project:

Dear Thomas and Friends of the SWLing Post,

I’m Giuseppe Morlè from Formia, central Italy on the Tyrrhenian Sea.

After the DICA prototype I created another one called DICA 2 The Revenge!

This other minimal antenna works differently from the prototype. It is shorter, has 3, 12 cm ferrites inside and has the sensors soldered inside in reverse on the telephone cable strap. It works coupled to a metal surface because it uses magnetic induction unlike the prototype.

In the videos you can see the differences between the prototype and the DICA 2…
and the yield on the highest ranges.

This small minimal antenna can tune listening from 3.5 to 30 MHz.

Thanks to you and greetings to all the Friends of SWLing Post.

73.

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