"I get a lot of noise from my random wire antenna. It transmits very well
but
is very noisy in receive. My neighbor put up a 280 foot loop antenna which

Ok.

he feeds with ladder line. He feeds the ladder line from a 4 to 1 balun to
coax. The coax comes from a tuner. His setup performs very well on all
bands
down to 75 meters. I went over to his shack last night and listened to his
receiver on 75. I was really impressed with the lack of noise. I can
safely
say the difference in noise was profound. He has this loop surrounding his

So, the noise is "profoundly" less (whatever that means), but what
about signals that you want to hear, and how does it perform
transmitting.

Well, I would not be raving about his antenna if it also reduced the signals
you want to hear. He gets the same kind of signal reports that I do. We were
both on the same net one night and we were both be received equally at
various spots. Clearly, mine transmits as well as his.

You see, a 30dB attenuator would profoundly reduce the noise.... and
the desired receive signals, and the tx signal, but it isn't
necessarily better.

When I listened to our local North Dakota Data Net, I heard all the checkins
like they were much much closer. No Noise! I should have been more specific.
The S?n ratio was profoundly better than my puny random wire. However, I do
not know yet if I am up to putting up 3 or 4 32 foot poles or higher. What a
drag. I will probably do this next spring. It is getting too cold to make
the task a very pleasant one now.

You probably know the answers, you just didn't tell us.

It is often the case that the best antenna for transmission is the one
that makes the most noise where you want to be heard, and the best
antenna for receiving is the one that gives the best S/N ratio (not
necessarily the best S meter deflection) for stations from that place,
and they may not be the same antenna.

Owen
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