wrote:
For bang for the buck the North Country Active antenna works pretty
well.
According to Yodar from RHFs Yahoo antenna group they will assemble
it for you. It is small enough to hide and will work much better then
the
PA0RDT. In my opinnion, based on the tests that I have made, the
PA0RDT
simply doesn't have enough antenna to overcomm the internal noise in
the
active electronics. The North country would be my first choice if I
couldn't
get a Lankford, or it's near clone the AMRAD.

Thanks for reminding me of the North Country! I had seen Yodar's note
about them building him one, but had forgotten about it. I think I'd
prefer the AMRAD or Dallas' design if the builder can do, but it's
another option and only a little over $100 at that. While poking
around the North Country site after reading your message, I came across
this page in their tech section:

http://www.northcountryradio.com/Articles/actant3.htm

It is a clear, concise explanation of how and why to use a "Bryant type
choke" and a seperate ground rod on an active antenna to knock down
noise on the shield. The only critical comment I would have is they
never actually call the noise common mode noise. You could save some
typing by referring someone there :-)

One variation I am going to try and build of Dallas' active dipole is
to build it
like a VHF coaxial dipole. The lower element will be an outer sleeve
over a
center support member. It would be very easy to hide in plain sight,
and with
some care in routing the coax, you might get away with calling it a
bird feeder.
Hard to put into words, but I ought to be very doable.

My problem is that since the Homeowners Association does all lawn and
driveway maintenance, free standing things that require any extra
effort to mow or trim around are frowned upon. Bird feeders need to be
attached to home or deck.
As time goes on, and trees grow a bit, something in a tree with buried
coax may be possible.

The R8B is a SWEET receiver. 95% of the time anything I hear on
the R8B I
can hear on my R2000. But that other 5% of the time is heaven!

Yeah, right now it's on my "future budget list"...... How do you rate
its' synchronous detector vs what you have seen?

Bob