Palomar Engineers Magnetic long wire antenna matche has been redesigned for shortwave listeners who listen to a broad frequency range from VLF to HF and others needing to match a long wire antenna to 50/75 ohm coax feed line cable.

Specifications: Frequency: 100 KHz – 30 MHz. Input: 50/75 ohms for coaxial cable. Output: High impedance. Connector: SO-239 (for cable), wingnut/solder lug wire lead (for antenna). Mounting: Stainless steel eyebolt. Size: 2.5” diameter. Case: White PVC sealed weatherproof. External ground bolt with wing nut for external counterpoise or separate ground.

The long wire antenna often has a high impedance in the 500-1000 ohm range and the MLB-2 transforms this high impedance close to efficiently couple the received signal to the receiver. A long wire antenna with a matching balun such as the MLB-2 often has a 12 db (2 “S” units) better signal than a long wire without a matching balun.

Typical Installation Diagram

MLB-1/MLB-2 Typical installation diagram

For best results we recommend that the coax feed line be at least 1/4 wavelength on the lowest operating frequency since the coax braid is used as a counterpoise if you don’t use the external counterpoise terminal on the matching unit. We also recommend a feed line choke at the end of the coax feed line near the radio to prevent RFI common mode current (from neighbor noise sources) from interfering with the radio – check out the info below on feed line chokes.

Also available as a complete ready to hang SWL antenna. (see related products).