Midland WR-120 Weather Radio With Custom Antenna Instructions
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 มิ.ย. 2013
- This video is a brief review of the Midland WR-120 weather radio. It also contains instructions on how to build an antenna for it that is custom tuned for the NOAA weather frequencies using household items.
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Great video! I added a loop at each end of the antenna to provide a way to hang it vertically and prevent it from poking things while handling. Many people forget to replace the batteries so I recommend using Lithium batteries which better shelf life and will never leak.
You can use a #12 copper wire from a piece of romex cable.Better than a steel coat hanger.
I found a dipole length calculator which gave me 17.29 inches for the leg length for 162.400 which is my nearest NOAA station in Grass Valley. It also showed a total length of 34.58 which is 2x the leg length. How should the distance between the terminal posts on the balun be handled...ignore or decrease the leg lenght? For most balun's it's very small and probably does not impact performance. BTW, thanks for this post. I have the WR400 and without your antenna it's been worthless for NOAA stations.
Cool video.
A simple VHF dipole and also be made with an old set of rabbit ears.
This is an excellent use of materials very resourceful
The cloning port on a Wr120 Is basically a way to transfer the setting data from another radio like a WR-100 to the WR120 Incase if the WR100 Died.
I connected computer speakers (needed external power) to my wr 120 (which is the radio you have) via external alert port and it's clear as day.
Btw the computer speakers worked
With the internal speaker
Very informative. A good tutorial!
Nice Video.
I think I'll put an External Antenna up. A "Copper J Pole" Then it will be Higher & Receive even FARTHER.
Thanks again for your Information.
The cloning port is to clone your settings to other weather radios
Cool. I would have split off the internal speaker or included a headset plug-in, just in case I didn't have external speaker available. I like options.
I have one question about the construction of the antenna: Is the 17.3 inches length (on one side) which you described for the construction of the antenna the total length of the wire on one side (including the amount of wire wrapped around the valun terminal post) or the amount of wire on one side past the valun terminal post to which the wire is attached?
It's the length not including the loop that attaches to the balun. The loop can be considered part of the terminal.
There was no reason to drill the hole for your wire to be connected to the speakers.
The Clone port is also a speaker port. (just so you know next time)
Thanks, didn't know that. No big deal though, I had fun soldering...
vids2check anytime.
vids2check another thing to know. IF the alert is to loud. and you wish to turn it down (you cant) unless you put in some resisters in the wire. that will make the alert sound not blast you out of bed. LOL
Hi, the cloning port (also called "PC Jack" on earlier versions) has nothing to do with speakers. It allows you to download your settings to a unit without having to go through all the menu steps. This is useful if you purchase a large number of radios which you would want to configure the same way. You can see this info on the Midland website FAQ. The same functionality exists on two-way radios and is particularly useful for instance if you buy 150 radios for your security guards -- imagine the time it would take to configure them one by one manually. Downloading the config this way is much faster.
would there be issues with ducting (skip) if you use an external antenna
Do you know what length wire is best for 162.550 frequency or is the 17.3" good enough for this frequency as well? Is there a chart that is available. Thanks
Yes, 17.3 inches per side will work for 162.550 Mhz.
If power gets lost, alerts wont sound lol
why would he not have sound?? the speaker he is using dont need power.
and the Midland WR-120 will work on BATT for 72 hours on standby for alerts.
You need to add batteries for alerts to sound without power.
could yo use a house vhf /uhf antenna on this
Probably, if the bandwidth covers VHF.
jc deer Yes you can I did. and it works GREAT. get a Coax Female To RCA Male adapter. See link. www.mjsales.net/items.asp?FamilyID=822&this_Cat1ID=266&Cat2ID=97 then just take the wire that comes in the house from the out side TV anntenna (the coax) and add the adapter and plug it in. as i said i have done it and it works GREAT.
thanks for info
Hi, yes but not efficiently. The NOAA VHF transmissions are VERTICALLY polarized. Note vids2check's antenna whip -- it's vertical, which is correct. VHF TV signals on the other hand are HORIZONTALLY polarized. Look at a neighbour's rooftop yagi antenna, the elements are all horizontal. Using a TV antenna is not a good idea, it will not provide significant gain (if any).
Look up "linear polarization".
Even with my VHF/UHF Antenna on Horizontal, I have very good reception on NOAA Weather Radio KIH-62. You also have to factor in the elevation the antenna is with respect to NWR's Transmitter. KIH-62 transmits from Bear Mountain from a Rebroadcast UHF Signal (their STL, no phone lines) originating from NWS Hanford. Since the transmit is at a higher elevation than my reception antenna, I can get away with a horizontal receive (Antenna gain is +2.8 db VHF) provided I am line of sight of Bear Mountain. Even in severe weather, I haven't had an issue with it.
You must have a defective radio because it could not pick up the seven stations. But external antennas will fix that, I suppose.
No location has all 7 frequencies active, you will usually get a strong signal from the transmitter that covers your area, and maybe hear 1-2 weak signals from nearby.
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do i call you he or she
You can call me MISTER Tibbs!🤓