Hi, I just joined this forum because I am interested in Top Band. I figured I
can learn more from you guys than the HFPack yahoo group HIHI (there are very
knowlegeable people on there, but this forum is geared more towards 160). I am
20 years old and a sophmore in college. I am finnishing out a 2 year
engineering scholarship at Sinclair Community College in Ohio and then will
transfer to OSU this comming fall for Mechanical Engineering. I am currently
working on WAS-160, all CW. I have 26 states, all but about 3 or 4 are from
this season.
OK, on to my big question here. My station is a Kenwood TS-2000 and 160-10m
G5RV for tx/rx and a K9AY loop system (4 switchable directions). I have noticed
that my G5RV picks up about HALF the noise that the K9AY loops do, and when I
try to use my pre-amp (ICE, 1800-2000kHz) with the loops all it does is amplify
the noise. The signal/noise ratio remains the same, if not lower because now it
is louder!!! What kind of rx antenna can I use that will drastically recuce my
noise? At times the QRN is over S9 but it is usually around S3, and if I am
luckey I can catch some noise levels that dont register on the S meter. These
readings are with the preamp on the rig turned off. I dont really care what the
strength of the signals are with the antenna or its directivity - I just want a
QUIETER antenna! I can use the preamp to bring the level back up. I would
prefer something omni-directional so I can hear stations equally well in all
directions, and that also makes installing it easi
er as
well - no vertical elements to phase (plus I dont have the space for phased
elements).
Steve, KC8QVO
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