j999 wrote:

Heck, I'm wiring up a homebrew BCB pre-amp right now for EWEs, loops, and
BOGs

Mike answered:

What sort of overload protection will you be using to prevent damage to
the radio? The preamp amplifies background noise too, so it would be a
good idea to stick a preselector between it and the radio.

Here's my thoughts. I often phase a 55' vertical against a 3' box loop to dig
out Mexican and Caribbean stations, and when I do that, I have to attenuate the
vertical. So, instead of attenuating the weak DX on the vert, I'll amplify the
pests on the loop!

Same goes for the EWE antennas. I can sometimes hear European or Caribbean
carriers on split channels at S5 or S7, but that's too weak to pull out any
audio. If I put the pre-amps at the antenna, it shouldn't add much noise to the
system. Heck, it's done on 80 and 160 meters all the time.

Nothing cooler than nulling out WBZ and hearing nothing but weak, distant
static from who know's where ... just waiting for some juicy DX to fade up.

As far as overload protection, the two radio's I use most are the Icom R71a,
and the Palstar R30. Both are almost bomb proof. I had the Palstar on a 700 ft
wire, 2 miles from a 5 kw local (a bit off the side of their main pattern) and
had no trouble (TX 1290khz, RX 1620khz). If I do need some preselection, I have
a homebrew LC passive preselector I can throw in line to knock down the
background images of locals (sometimes real weak in the noise).

Some random thoughts...
Some benefits can be had by feeding the audio into a proper audio
amplifier, where you can play with the sound quality more. Something
with a bandwidth adjustment..

antennaamplifypreselectradiosound processspeaker


I have the MFJ752B that I use at times, but normally I'll record the audio and
later manipulate it on the computer with Cool Edit 2000.

Here's a few audio clips from the last season:

http://members.aol.com/j999w/DX

Neil Kazaross of Illinois has recently set up a summer home right on Lake
Michigan and is logging some pretty good stuff ... I'm gonna have to step it
up a notch to keep up with him on my limited space antenna farm. Hard to match
800 ft wires on a 150x150' lot ! Looks like a summer of burying radials and
building pre-amps.

John Wilke
K9RZZ
Milwaukee