"Telamon" wrote in message
...
In article
,
Telamon wrote:
In article
.com,
wrote:
wrote:
Telamon wrote:
In article
. com,
wrote:
Bob Agnew wrote:
Well now that I've had this radio a few days, it seems
OK. I sure
regret
giving away my R390A though! I am currently stiffled by
the lack
of
a
decent antenna. At my old QTH, I had a 130 ft. G5RV
strung from a
30 ft
tree top. Condo living sucks for Radio enthusiasts.
I feel your pain.
I use a Wellbrook 330S and recommend it, though it isn't
cheap.
Yes, using a small active loop antenna is most likely your
best bet.
You
could also make a large passive loop if you have a good
place to put it
like an attic. Some condos have attics. If you don't have
that then use
an outside wall as long as you do not have aluminum siding
or stucco.
The Wellbrook has two primary virtues, so far as I'm
concerned. First,
it doesn't pick up a lot of noise, and the lower noise floor
helps to
render weak and messy signals intelligible. Second, you can
rotate it
to null local noise sources. Earlier this evening the guy
behind me was
letting his car idle and I was hearing it all over the place.
After
rotating the Wellbrook I could no longer hear even a trace of
the
noise.
That said, I'm constantly itching to try out new antennas and
put them
head to head with the Wellbrook. I'd like to pitch the
Wellbrook
against the Par End-Fedz wire antenna and the RF Systems MTA
passive
vertical, just to name a couple. It seems to me the Wellbrook
with its
loop design should win on principle, but experience
occasionally throws
you an interesting surprise.
The biggest problem with the Wellbrook is nobody is ripping off
their
design, so the price is high, especially with the Bush weak
dollar
policy.
Snip
Why would you want to see someone rip off the Wellbrook design?
Presumably so that with competition with similar
designs the price would go down. I'm not so sure
that there's enough money to be made in the
small active loop field for someone else to try
to come along and undercut the Wellbrook,
however. It's not like Wal-Mart is going to start
stocking Wellbrook clones anytime soon.
I figure that if someone wants to try to outdo
the Wellbrook, they have ample opportunity
to do so. Until then, let Andy run his business
the way he wants to.
--Mike L.