I have only tried a couple of different antenna for listening so far. An active antenna, a random loop made from some helicopter antenna wire and a loop made from flexweave wire.

The active antenna is a dipole type antenna with an amplifier built in. The elements of the dipole are metal rods about 1.5m long. I tried this both outside the flat and inside the flat. Outside was obviously better but meant the feed wire had to be allowed through an open window, not good at this time of year! Inside it was nearly deaf.

The helicopter wire was quite good. I lowered it out of the window and attached either end to a Z-Match ATU. I used a tape reel to add a bit of weight to the loop to hold the wire straight. I logged some spots on pskreporter using this antenna to get an idea of distance and direction. I found that it was omni-directional but gave short distances on both 40m and 80m overnight. I heard stations in most parts of Europe and a couple of Russian stations.

The flexweave loop consisted of 50m of flexweave wire laid out on the flat roof again connected to the Z-Match. This loop was basically horizontal which hampered the results. I was planning to fix a part of the loop up to the guttering but didn't get the chance. This performed best on 80m and I heard a few Russian stations as well as a crowd of European ones. Unfortunately another resident here has complained about the wire so I have removed it. Looks like people here are not going to allow me to have even a barely visible antenna....

In using the different wires for the antenna, I have decided I really like the flexweave wire. It is the easiest to handle and is really durable. If you are looking for wire to make an antenna then I recommend it. You can get hold of some really nice antenna made with flexweave at HF Antenna. Also if you have a design that you would like built they can model it and build it for you.

I am now using 4nec2 running in wine to model antenna. I am working on a design for 30m which is an inverted trapezium. It is showing really good characteristics for DX hunting and I will get the designs up on here once I have finished tweaking it.