Receiving Wire Antenna at W4DEX

For several years I have primarily used this simple wire antenna for most all of my VLF, LF, MF and HF listening.  The wire initially was used as a single turn loop of approximately 100 x 30 feet.    Reception was good but the loop didn't last long due to falling limbs breaking the wire.  After repairing the breaks several times I decided to try part of the loop as a end fed wire.    In the picture below a wire running an angle up and over some limbs of the oak tree then back down to a common point.  The ends are tied together at this point and connected to a 9:1 matching transformer.

The picture below show the matching transformer wound on a FT77-240 core.  A core much larger than needed but what I had available at that time.  The two wires tied together connect to one end of the high impedance winding.  The other end of that winding connects to a ground rod which is just a few feet into the ground where it hit solid rock. 

The low impedance winding of the transformer is connected to 75 ohm coax and is isolated from the earth ground.  The coax lays on the ground going uphill to the house which is approximately 500 feet away.  Ground level at the house is higher than the tree tops at the antenna.  The coax has been there now for several years and already isn't visible at any point all the way to the house.

The two insulators above the transformer box is where the two ends of the wire are supported.  Two insulators because that was the original loop feed point.  The nearest potential noise source is a monopole cell site which can be seen through the trees.  The cell site is probably closer to the antenna than the house.

The house end of the coax connects to a FT77 1:1 transformer.  This isolates the coax from the house ground.  

This antenna provides plenty of signal without any amplification for reception from VLF through HF.