[Skimmertalk] skimmer antennas

[k3mm at verizon.net]

Lots of ways to do this and a lot depends on what you have available and how you use your station.  I have a nice set of tribanders, wires, and short beverages that sit dormant most of the time outside of contests, so I use them for my QS1R skimmer.
 
I use my tribander stack on 20-10 and the beverage(s) on 160-40.  I use a lightning arrestor and then an ARR preamp in the triibander line.  My K9AY beverage selector box has a lowpass filter and preamp built in.  I dont worry about impedance after that....I use RG6 into a passive CATV combiner and run that into the QS1R.  It works well!
 
When I"m operating the station, I have a RX limiter with a homebrewed preamp tap port in the RX line of each radio which then feeds the combiner.  The signals "go away" on transmit.
 
73, Ty K3MM


Nov 15, 2010 10:02:10 PM, wes.cosand at gmail.com wrote:

On Mon, Nov 15, 2010 at 10:06 AM, Pete Smith wrote:

> I think that a vertical is best, though some guys use directional
> antennas. I use a small active vertical - WZ7I uses a Hy-tower. I
> don't think my little vertical hears at all well on 160, and hope Wes
> will comment on what he thinks of the Hytower on that band.
>
>
Hi Igor:

This is a very good question. If these SDRs require an impedance close to
50 ohms for reasonable sensitivity, how do we do that for six to nine bands
without a lot of complexity?

Active antennas such as those from Jack Smith at Clifton Labs and from DX
Engineering provide a reasonable solution. You can use the tools at RBN to
compare them.

I use a 40' HyGain HyTower JR. with 32 65' radials. It is reasonably
inexpensive and easy to repair. It isn't resonant on 160 meters or the WARC
bands but I seem to get pretty good reception and the impedance isn't too
far off. Contesters on 160 meters tell me the data is useful.

Let me know if I can be of further help.

Wes, WZ7I
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