Topband: PreAmp Recommendations

[Donald Chester]

My experience with preamps has been that they amplify the background noise 
just about as much as the signal.  Unless your receiver lacks front-end 
gain, they are pretty much useless.

The exception might be if the antenna has extremely low pickup such as a 
small whip or loop, the preamp might raise the signal a dB or two relative 
to the noise floor.  At  least in theory.  I have yet to see a preamp that 
has ever improved the s/n ratio of a signal in my station.  This includes 
both tube type and solid state preamps.

Don K4KYV