Jim, you are absolutely right.
But a small indoor loop antenna does not compare to an outdoor beverage or
K9AY.
My point is, you don't have to pay $500 to have a decent indoor loop.
I can build one that works just as well for about $50.
I can buy one for about $200.
Your message on noisy power supplies needs to be re-emphasized.
At my previous QTH here in Germany, an electrician was working on our
antiquated house electrical system.
He did something stupid which blew out EVERY wall-wart power supply in the
house, as well as all the P.S. in all our computers, monitors, etc. Was
about 15 wall-warts.
Since I had to buy all new, I replaced all with linear power supplies (often
with several devises sharing one larger P.S.) - except for the computer
power supplies which were replaced with original switchers (but all Dell,
not no-name).
Results: when I turned my radio back on, my noise level was quieter than it
had ever been in recent times.
Unfortunately, two moves across the Atlantic in the past 5 years has me back
in a position that all consumer products are back on switchers again.
Eventually I will get them all swapped out.
73
Rick, DJ0IP
-----Original Message-----
From: TenTec [mailto:tentec-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Jim Brown
Sent: Sunday, September 22, 2013 8:04 AM
To: tentec@contesting.com
Subject: [TenTec] Value of RX Only Antennas
On 9/21/2013 9:17 PM, Rick - DJ0IP / NJ0IP wrote:
> $500 seems like a lot of money to pay for a Receive-ONLY antenna,
> unless it will be beneficial most of the time.
Too many hams don't pay enough attention to RX. If you can't hear them, you
can't work them. The best RX antennas can let you hear 6dB weaker signals.
That's a LOT. I work a lot of guys who I can copy on my Beverages and
barely hear on my dipoles. Obviously, cleaning up the noise in your
environment helps too. I've recently gone through the process of finding
all the switching power supplies in my home and replacing them with linear
supplies. The only switchers still here are for computers. Luckily, they are
for Thinkpads, and they're not too bad.
Vertical angle of arrival also matters, sometimes a lot. Beverages are
fairly high angle, vertical arrays favor very low angles. Angle of arrival
can vary a LOT with time and conditions. Those who have both Beverages and
vertical arrays talk about 10-20 dB differences at any given time on a
signal. 2 dB can make the difference between a QSO and a failure.
My Beverages are designed for 160M, and are 550 ft long, but they work very
well from the AM broadcast band all the way up to 20M. Before I had a beam
for 20M, I used them a lot on 20M to help me hear EU.
73, Jim K9YC
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