Steve wrote:
I have a question about how the ANC-4 works. Specifically, it's about
the antennas that you connect to the ANC-4 in order to cancel noise or
make a 'phased array'.

In some contexts, when noise is a problem, people will say that you
want to keep the "noise antenna" that you use with the ANC-4 as small
as possible. This is because you want the noise antenna to hear *only*
the noise, which will be phased out, and not the target signal, which
you don't want to be phased out. The suggestion here is clearly that,
if your noise antenna *does* hear the target signal, you're going lose
signal along with noise.

However, when people use the ANC-4 to establish phased arrays of two or
more antennas, this is usually with a couple of serious antennas,
widely separated, *both* of which can hear the target signal. Hence my
question: When the ANC-4 is connected to two largish antennas, both of
which are capable of hearing the target signal, what prevents the
desired signal from simply being phased out? Is determining what gets
phased out just a matter of carefully adjusting the controls on the
ANC-4?

Thanks!

Steve

By this time I've used the ANC-4 enough to know that it's a big help.
Where noise is concerned, it makes much more of a difference for me
than running off batteries, ferrite cores, etc. I'm kicking myself for
not getting one of these sooner. I find that my noise floor usually
drops one or two S-units the instant I turn the ANC-4 on. Adjusting the
controls then can make a huge difference; and at my location it almost
always makes more of a difference than is necessary to compensate for
the 6 dB insertion loss. It especially shines during the day on LSB and
USB.

I've tried it with a lot of different antennas, but I'll be
experimenting with antennas for quite some time, I suspect. I did
eventually get good results using the H-800 active whip. However, where
noise reduction is concerned, I find that I get the best results using
a wire antenna that snakes its way between my house and the neighbor's
house and then back near some power lines. The nulls with the wire
antenna are just as deep as they are with the H-800, but they're a lot
easier to find. These conclusions are pretty tentative, though, as I am
still experimenting and trying out different arrangements.

On the whole, I think the ANC-4 is great and worth every penny if you
have problems with noise. It works as advertised.

Steve