Today I started experimenting with listening antennas. My goal is to find something I can pack in my truck and set up deep in the heart of baja for weather nets. My first purchase was an ANLP1 active antenna and that works great because right now I'm using a G5 portable radio which like the ANLP1 has a mini Jack connector. However I'm making a big upgrade in the radio departmnet (probably a aor7030) so I wanted to start testing against the ANLP1 to get some antenna intel and a random wire was the obvious first step. At first glance the random wire seems to work a little better than the ANLP1. At times the wire seems to pull in more signal and at times it's almost exactly the same. The wire is 100 feet long and hanging about 30 feet up. The ANLP1 is about 20 feet up. So I have some questions for all you folks who know lots about this stuff. Thanks for any info you can share.

Is this a suprising result? I kinda thought the active antenna would outperform the wire.

Will a tuned mutliband really be that much better?

If you were going to make an antenna that's relatively easy to store and set up with the goal of getting some
fun radio stations and a handfull of sideband stations what would you opt for? I would define easy as raising a 30ft guyed mast as relatively easy. A 140 foot multiband wire antenna off that would be pushing the limits if not too much space.

And finally, will the reception of the ANLP1 increase very much if it's 30 feet up?

Thanks for your time helping out a rookie. I'm slowly being sucked in!