"Dale" wrote in message
...
I was going to say this as a response to someone else's post but
didn't want
to hijack their thread. So... Can anyone tell me why you would ever
use a
factory supplied whip antenna over an external wire or other
external
antenna?

The factory supplied whip antennas are to me a sad excuse for a real
antenna
but I guess the manufacturers have to put some sort of an antenna on
the
radio so it will work and they can call it a portable. Did I just
answer my
own question? I really get a kick out of someone saying some radios
don't
perform well off of the whip. Who cares? Someone please enlighten
me. When
would you ever use a supplied whip over an external wire or other
antenna?
Even in a hotel room or on a camping trip you could use an external
wire
antenna. Light guage wire of any reasonable length takes up very
little room
and most decent radios usually have an external antenna jack. You
can also
look at the higher end radios as well as ultra high end radios and
none of
them come with a whip antenna.

I don't want this to become heated but I really am curious under
what
circumstances some of you would use a whip antenna (FM excluded).
I'm
certain that I must be missing something really obvious here. Thanks
in
advance....


I don't think you're missing anything but I think you may not be
allowing enough for different people's assessment of convenience v.
need for sensitivity, particularly when you factor in listening
preferences and whether or not the person is into DXing. When we do
"outdoorsy" stuff like camping, the Radio Shack DX-399 (a
great -sounding- radio for its size) makes the trip. Personally, I
don't do a lot of DXing, and tend to do less when away from home
unless I'm in a really interesting spot. I realize that a wire
antenna wouldn't take up much room, but it's still -one- more thing,
and one more thing to avoid having to get in the way, no matter how
slight the relative inconvenience. Add to that the fact that I can
get that which I intend to listen to off the whip, and I tend to stick
with just the whip.