quote:

Originally posted by Jim Babek:
I took mine apart last night and didnt see any antenna wire in there. I did however manage to snap off the on/off switch . Now I will have to ues the point of a knife to turn it on and off.

Maybe I will rip it apart again tonight to take another look.

Did you take apart the receiver or the transmitter? If you didn't have any wire in the receiver no wonder you're getting bad range.

The range isnt all that bad but its not like I can call Maverick up now and tell them I ripped the back off, snapped the switch off and now I want a new receiver.

if that's the case then find out where to solder the wire and do so. at this point you have nothing to lose.

I've had poor range problems since day one. The only way I've been able to get it to work inside the house is by setting the reciever in an open window. Maverick has sent me 2 replacements but I still have poor range. I opened it up this morning to try and extend the antenna.

I think we may have discovered why so many of the earlier ET-73's had problems. They left out the antennas!

http://www.ihaveadotcom.com/Maverick/et-73.jpg

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Phil S,

Phil : Dang your right mine has NO ANT wire at all.

I soldered a wire in the empty hole and ran the wire loop as shown for the original wire in Antons picture and WOW a big big difference in receiver range.

Thanks you guys

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Jim Burmeister,

Mine's also seemed a little short when it came to range. So I just opened it up and ... No antanna !

Has anyone called Maverick about this?

Don't get too excited. I soldered a wire on mine and got a total of 20 ft away before it died. I'm not an electrical engineer but I seem to remember something about antenna length being tied in to the wavelength of the signal. I put a 12" wire on mine and have to wonder if that might have been too long.

.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Phil S,

I opened mine up today to have a look and no antenna wire here either.

Anton's pic shows an antenna wire and what I'm guessing is a rev number sticker, 05A4, on the inside of the back cover. Perhaps it's a manufactured date code or something else though.

Mine like in Phil S's pic has 04E3 on the sticker. He had no wire either.

Now I'm thinking to try soldering on a wire and see what happens, but I wonder if it will do any good. If the antenna was left out intentionally, that connector on the circuit board might not be 'connected' to anything that will make use of the signal from the wire I add.

At any rate, what is the best choice of wire for this application? Braided, solid? Gauge?

Phil, 12" is the half wave length for 433 MHz, which is the frequency they transmit on. Try cutting that wire down to .54 feet or so and see if it works any better for you. If not, there's some other issue with yours. Cheers

Shawn, solid and what ever fits in the hole, prolly 24 to 26 gauge.

My Ham radio knowledge says the length is very critical, so based on the picture of Antons original wire trace I made one and soldered it to the open hole.

Bill I believe your .54 foot is on the money and is very close to what my add on was.

It made a BIG difference in my received range.
Also thru more walls of the house.

Did the test with new Batts in both boxes.

I will call Maverick on Monday and have a chat with them.

Whoo wee....you all is purty smart for a bunch of Butt burners.

My next question is; will a too long antenna degrade the range or will a 1.8 foot antenna do 2x as well?

It's been many MANY moons since I took my class in antennas. Honestly, I can't remember the best length for reception but as I recall, you can select a length that will cancel the signal out, therefore, yes ~ Too long an antenna length can degrade your range. I threw the 1/4 wave length out there because I remember something about it being an optimal length for reception. If someone with an ET-73 can measure their antenna length that's wrapped up in their unit, (assuming yours has one ) I think it'll be in the 6 to 6.5" range.

Formula for Antennas is a
Basic 1/2 wave is 468/freq

So 468/433(freq of Et-73 ) =1.08083 feet
Which is 12.9699 inches

Now then a quarter wave which is used on stuff like cell phones or handy radios is half of a half wave, or 1/4 wave antenna.
So 12.9699 inches divided by 2 = 6.4849 inches.

Like you said Bill .54 of a foot = 6.48 inches.

Well that's the length of thin covered wire I soldered to my ET - 73 empty hole on the circuit board and the range was improved an easy 3 times what it was without any antenna connected.

Phil a length of 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 times 6.4849 inches will improve reception in small steps.
But the quarter wave 6.4849 inches or close to it verses no antenna will give you the biggest boost and will fit in the receiver box wrapped around the perimeter of the case.



Hope this helps ..!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Jim Burmeister,

I also HAD no antenna. But I got one now!! Tried a light guage wire tucked inside the case and got quite an improvement in reception. But I still wasn't happy. So, I snipped off most of the wire soldered a heavier guage wire to the end and let it stick straight up from the top of the case and voila, at least 100ft and reception all the way through my entire house.

I used a wire stiff enough to resist bending and trapped it in a small notch in the case.

Al

Fantastic!
What length is your antenna total? I'm going to start playing with my "dead" unit and see if I can get it to work. With the 12" wire soldered in yesterday, the range was only 20' or so. Today, I'm going to snip it to 6-1/2" and try again. If that works, I'm willing to try an antenna on the roof. (Now where did I put that Radio Shack antenna booster? )

Phil,

Total length from solder joint on the board to tip of antenna wire is 6 1/2 inches.

Al

That's great Al, do you know what gauge of wire you used?

I bought an et-73 on eBay a couple of weeks ago; brand new, in shrink wrap. It had poor range, maybe 15 ft line of sight only. While waiting for my WSM to be delivered from Amazon (eta is next week), I've been reading this forum.

Anyway, took the et-73 receiver apart after reading this thread, and found I had no antenna wire either. I added a 6 1/2" wire using some old 30 guage wire wrap wire I had lying around, range is much improved, not great but much better through walls and with my big gas stainless steel grill cover blocking the line of sight.

thanks much for the tip!!!

I did note that 6 1/2" is not near long enough to match the wire routing in the photo of the original poster. Looks like that wire would be somewhere between 9" and 10.5". I too remember 1/4 wave antennas, so maybe those with the wire from Maverick can still optimize their reception by clippin a few inches off their antenna...

-gary

I clipped my homeade antenna to the proper length and got over 100' line of sight. At 40-50' my body was enough to block the signal. Indoors will not work through 1 interior wall.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Phil S,

I finally opened mine and had the wire there. I pulled it out throuugh a notch. After I re-sodered the wire or two I pulled loose (ouch), it works great. I get 40 feet inside my house through 3 walls.