On Aug 18, 3:34*am, "Stephen Drummonds"
wrote:
Can anyone tell me about them?? *Are they any better or worse than wire
antenna?? * Thanks for any comments about this * * * * * * *Steve

D Peter Maus and Telamon gave you good advice. Always try a passive
wire antenna first if you have enough yard space. See my thoughts on
that and my own experiments over the years at:
http://www.dxing.info/community/view... 95db5c0f1183

If you can't get up a passive antenna then there is quite a wide
choice of active powered antenna's. The best reviews in one place of
all those can be found in Passport to World Band Radio: see
http://www.passband.com/
It's well worth buying because it has good advice and good reviews of
all sorts of radio gear. However, I don't always agree with them as I
have owned some of things that they rate quite highly and found them
absolute junk (mainly anything MFJ [Mighty Fine Junk]).

With active antenna's the general rule applies - the more you pay the
better it will be. The cheaper ones tend to pick up a lot of static
and suburban noise and can be subject to overloading if you have
powerful stations nearby. Also some of them are not very good on the
AM MW bands and may not work on the LF/LW band at all. The two best
actives in my opinion are the Wellbrook Ala1530 and the RF Systems DX1
Professional MkII. See:
http://www.wellbrook.uk.com/products.html#ALA1530
http://www.rf-systems.nl/DX-one.html

I have owned a DX1 Pro for eight years now and it gives me superb
reception. Here are my various thoughts on this great antenna:
http://www.dxing.info/equipment/dx1pro.dx
http://www.dxing.info/community/view...hp?f=17&t=2343
http://www.dxing.info/community/view...hp?f=17&t=2353

Please remember though that active antenna's must have the same care
and attention to their placing as a good passive wire antenna. The
higher up they are the better, erect it away from household noise
sources and ground it to earth well.

Universal also have a good range of antenna's. See:
http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/sw_ant.html

Have fun and good luck.

John Plimmer, Montagu, Western Cape Province, South Africa
South 33 d 47 m 32 s, East 20 d 07 m 32 s
Icom IC-7700, Icom IC-756 PRO III with MW mods
ERGO software
Drake SW8. Sangean 803A
Sony 7600D, GE SRIII, Redsun RP2100
Antenna's RF Systems DX 1 Pro Mk II, Datong AD-270
Kiwa MW Loop.
http://www.dxing.info/about/dxers/plimmer.dx