Someone wrote:
"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? "

Yep good answer -- portability
On my R/S DX 398 -- works quite well every thing considered

--
One Watt

To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism;
to steal from many is research.
-- Comedian Steven Wright


"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....