Topband: RX Antenna

[Arthur Delibert]

I'm in the same situation:  A small suburban lot, with no room for a beverage, but some trees to support pennants, flags, etc.  At the moment, I'm using a pennant to separate Saudi Arabia on 1521 AM from WWKB in Buffalo on 1520.  No other antenna I've tried really comes close.  Noise in the house (which I can't entirely control) makes it impossible to use a small, amplified indoor loop antenna, although some MW DXers have used those successfully.
 
The pennant feeds a DX Engineering amp, followed by a line isolator to make sure the outer braid on the co-ax isn't part of the antenna.  I tried it without the line isolator, and I tried it with the DX Engineering amp in the house.  Either of those arrangements degraded performance.  The pennant is the "standard" dimensions described in the original articles.
 
This antenna often helps on higher frequencies as well, since there's a fair amount of noise in this area.
 
At a prior QTH, I tried the horizontal square described in QST for September 1995 (Beezley, "A Receiving Antenna the Rejects Local Noise").  Results were great, but my current layout doesn't lend itself to that antenna, which needs four supports and should be perfectly horizontal.
 
--Art Delibert, KB3FJO
 
> From: w0uce at nc.rr.com
> To: topband at contesting.com
> Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2011 17:56:26 -0500
> Subject: Topband: RX Antenna
> 
> I would appreciate hearing from folks using Pennants, Flags or EWEs for RX
> antennas on 160 and 80m with regard to your success with them and any
> recommendations you care to offer. I have no room for beverages here but
> plenty of natural supports for simple wire RX antennas. 
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Jack W0UCE
> 
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