Hi there -

I have an rtl-sdr, the Ham It Up Upconverter and the NooElec 9:1 balun. I've read conflicting things about the "balun" and how best to connect a long wire antenna. I've read that I should only connect one random wire, I've read I should connect one of the two wires to ground and I've read that I can cut the "Trace" on the bottom of the 9:1 and only use one long wire. I can't seem to locate the "trace" on the bottom of the PCB.

As it stands now, I have a 70 foot piece of speaker wire connected to one of the terminals (not the "grnd" terminal) on the 9:1 which is connected to the Ham It Up which is connected to the RTL-SDR. I did try running ground to some copper water pipes as that's all I have available in the spot where my setup is.I have heard some weak shortwave signals (several religious type stations that are obviously in the US) and I've heard a conversation on 20 meter that I'm pretty sure was nearby but I'm having a hard time picking anything else up. I saw a video where the listener was using direct sampling in SDR#, but that seems to make things worse for me. My offset in SDR# is set to -125,000,000. I do have a little bit of experience with HF so this has been a frustrating experiment with the rtl-sdr.

Does anyone have any suggestions for me? I'm particularly interested in the 9:1 and cutting of the "trace".

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**Edit - I made a kind of 'sloper' out the 2nd floor window with a small counterpoise. What a difference this made. Thank you all for your help!