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Old November 8th 06, 06:08 AM posted to rec.radio.shortwave
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Default pa0rdt-Mini-Whip

I ordered one of these things after reading a blurb about it while
studying antennas. After placing the order I began to read reviews and
was honestly somewhat skeptical. I need not have been.

I received it yesterday and finally put it up today. I attached it to an
8' section of PVC pipe and mounted the pipe at a 45 degree angle to the
side of my house from a second floor window. I ran the coax down the pipe
and into the window to my E1.

I really did not expect too much based on the reviews I had read which
seemed luke warm most of the time. This thing utterly amazed me! I
compared to the whip as well as my 75' long wire. It absolutely smoked
the whip and performed significantly better than the wire. A quick gauge
for me is how well I receive 5K, 10K, 15K. I have NEVER been able to
hear more than one at a time. Today with the Mini-Whip, I heard 5,10 AND
15! Granted 15K was a little low but it was readable. Scanning the BC
bands I found that compared to the internal whip (which is fairly good on
the E1), I was able to pull up signals that were buried in a noise floor
at about S4, to +20 over S9 in some cases. The average increase in
strength for any frequency I checked was 2-4 S units and often to +30 over
S9. And the really neat thing is that the signal was very quiet. RTI
with the internal whip was about S6 which is readable but skirted in
noise. With the mini-whip it was +20 and almost full quieting! I
expected this thing to be a noise amplifier. It is indeed NOT that.

Anyway, that is my initial and not-so-scientific impression of the
pa0rdt-Mini-Whip. I feel like I have just discovered SWL after doing it
for 3 years.

Congrats to Roelof for a great work!

Best,
-Al

--
"Don't get too wrapped up in dogma. Who knows? When we get to heaven
there might be a Big Buddha laughing at us while we're all running
around going 'Oh ****!'" - a Catholic bishop

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Old November 8th 06, 02:23 PM posted to rec.radio.shortwave
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Posts: 1,324
Default pa0rdt-Mini-Whip


Al Arduengo wrote:
I ordered one of these things after reading a blurb about it while
studying antennas. After placing the order I began to read reviews and
was honestly somewhat skeptical. I need not have been.

I received it yesterday and finally put it up today. I attached it to an
8' section of PVC pipe and mounted the pipe at a 45 degree angle to the
side of my house from a second floor window. I ran the coax down the pipe
and into the window to my E1.

I really did not expect too much based on the reviews I had read which
seemed luke warm most of the time. This thing utterly amazed me! I
compared to the whip as well as my 75' long wire. It absolutely smoked
the whip and performed significantly better than the wire. A quick gauge
for me is how well I receive 5K, 10K, 15K. I have NEVER been able to
hear more than one at a time. Today with the Mini-Whip, I heard 5,10 AND
15! Granted 15K was a little low but it was readable. Scanning the BC
bands I found that compared to the internal whip (which is fairly good on
the E1), I was able to pull up signals that were buried in a noise floor
at about S4, to +20 over S9 in some cases. The average increase in
strength for any frequency I checked was 2-4 S units and often to +30 over
S9. And the really neat thing is that the signal was very quiet. RTI
with the internal whip was about S6 which is readable but skirted in
noise. With the mini-whip it was +20 and almost full quieting! I
expected this thing to be a noise amplifier. It is indeed NOT that.

Anyway, that is my initial and not-so-scientific impression of the
pa0rdt-Mini-Whip. I feel like I have just discovered SWL after doing it
for 3 years.

Congrats to Roelof for a great work!

Best,
-Al

--
"Don't get too wrapped up in dogma. Who knows? When we get to heaven
there might be a Big Buddha laughing at us while we're all running
around going 'Oh ****!'" - a Catholic bishop


Are you in a rural, urban or suburban location? Have you grounded the
coax shield in any way where it meets the antenna? What kind of antenna
were you using before?

I tried the mini-whip and was disappointed, so I'm curious about why it
works so much better for other people than it does for me.

Steve

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Old November 8th 06, 05:38 PM posted to rec.radio.shortwave
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Posts: 3
Default pa0rdt-Mini-Whip


Steve wrote:

snip

Anyway, that is my initial and not-so-scientific impression of the
pa0rdt-Mini-Whip. I feel like I have just discovered SWL after doing it
for 3 years.

Congrats to Roelof for a great work!

Best,
-Al

Are you in a rural, urban or suburban location? Have you grounded the
coax shield in any way where it meets the antenna? What kind of antenna
were you using before?

I tried the mini-whip and was disappointed, so I'm curious about why it
works so much better for other people than it does for me.

Steve


Steve,

I am in a suburban neighborhood north of the DFW area (Allen
specifically). I did not ground the coax shield. I have been using a
75 ft wire at a height of 8', or the internal whip until now.

I attached the mini-whip to a PVC pipe of about 8 ft length. I
extended it out from a second floor bedroom window at about a 60deg
angle which allows me to anchor it to the window sill and secure it to
the roof overhang. This places the mini-whip at a height of about 20ft
and a distance of about 4ft or so from the side of the house. I ran
the coax down the pipe with cable ties straight to the power feed unit.
The power feed is connected to a 12V deep cycle battery and directly
to the radio via a 1ft coax. Roelof and other users have stated that
it only works well if you get it high and as far away from noise
sources as possible.

Honestly, I am very impressed. It has a much lower noise floor than
using the wire and provides much more gain than the internal whip. The
wire could pull in some stations that are, for me, pretty weak but I
always struggled to understand through the noise. The internal whip is
pretty quiet but just couldn't bring in anything much. Last night I
heard dozens of stations I had never heard before, and the ones I had
heard before were dramatically clearer.

Now I need to state that I am by no means a DXer. I simply do not have
the antenna space or the wife's permission for a large loop or anything
like that. I guess that makes me a BCB listener. That's ok though. I
am very excited about this antenna and plan on spending a lot of hours
re-exploring the bands.

If you want, I can take some pics of my setup and area to which you can
compare your own. It might shed some light.

Good luck!
-Al

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Old November 9th 06, 03:42 AM posted to rec.radio.shortwave
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First recorded activity by RadioBanter: Jul 2006
Posts: 4,494
Default pa0rdt-Mini-Whip

In article . com,
"Steve" wrote:

Al Arduengo wrote:
I ordered one of these things after reading a blurb about it while
studying antennas. After placing the order I began to read reviews
and was honestly somewhat skeptical. I need not have been.

I received it yesterday and finally put it up today. I attached it
to an 8' section of PVC pipe and mounted the pipe at a 45 degree
angle to the side of my house from a second floor window. I ran
the coax down the pipe and into the window to my E1.

I really did not expect too much based on the reviews I had read
which seemed luke warm most of the time. This thing utterly amazed
me! I compared to the whip as well as my 75' long wire. It
absolutely smoked the whip and performed significantly better than
the wire. A quick gauge for me is how well I receive 5K, 10K, 15K.
I have NEVER been able to hear more than one at a time. Today
with the Mini-Whip, I heard 5,10 AND 15! Granted 15K was a little
low but it was readable. Scanning the BC bands I found that
compared to the internal whip (which is fairly good on the E1), I
was able to pull up signals that were buried in a noise floor at
about S4, to +20 over S9 in some cases. The average increase in
strength for any frequency I checked was 2-4 S units and often to
+30 over S9. And the really neat thing is that the signal was very
quiet. RTI with the internal whip was about S6 which is readable
but skirted in noise. With the mini-whip it was +20 and almost
full quieting! I expected this thing to be a noise amplifier. It
is indeed NOT that.

Anyway, that is my initial and not-so-scientific impression of the
pa0rdt-Mini-Whip. I feel like I have just discovered SWL after
doing it for 3 years.

Congrats to Roelof for a great work!

Are you in a rural, urban or suburban location? Have you grounded the
coax shield in any way where it meets the antenna? What kind of
antenna were you using before?

I tried the mini-whip and was disappointed, so I'm curious about why
it works so much better for other people than it does for me.


I think you are in an urban environment, which probably has a worse
local noise spectrum than at Al's location. You also probably used an
AC supply to power the antenna where Al is using a battery.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California
  #5   Report Post  
Old November 9th 06, 03:43 AM posted to rec.radio.shortwave
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First recorded activity by RadioBanter: Jul 2006
Posts: 4,494
Default pa0rdt-Mini-Whip

In article om,
"exal" wrote:

Steve wrote:

snip

Anyway, that is my initial and not-so-scientific impression of the
pa0rdt-Mini-Whip. I feel like I have just discovered SWL after doing it
for 3 years.

Congrats to Roelof for a great work!

Are you in a rural, urban or suburban location? Have you grounded the
coax shield in any way where it meets the antenna? What kind of antenna
were you using before?

I tried the mini-whip and was disappointed, so I'm curious about why it
works so much better for other people than it does for me.


I am in a suburban neighborhood north of the DFW area (Allen
specifically). I did not ground the coax shield. I have been using a
75 ft wire at a height of 8', or the internal whip until now.

I attached the mini-whip to a PVC pipe of about 8 ft length. I
extended it out from a second floor bedroom window at about a 60deg
angle which allows me to anchor it to the window sill and secure it to
the roof overhang. This places the mini-whip at a height of about 20ft
and a distance of about 4ft or so from the side of the house. I ran
the coax down the pipe with cable ties straight to the power feed unit.
The power feed is connected to a 12V deep cycle battery and directly
to the radio via a 1ft coax. Roelof and other users have stated that
it only works well if you get it high and as far away from noise
sources as possible.

Honestly, I am very impressed. It has a much lower noise floor than
using the wire and provides much more gain than the internal whip. The
wire could pull in some stations that are, for me, pretty weak but I
always struggled to understand through the noise. The internal whip is
pretty quiet but just couldn't bring in anything much. Last night I
heard dozens of stations I had never heard before, and the ones I had
heard before were dramatically clearer.

Now I need to state that I am by no means a DXer. I simply do not have
the antenna space or the wife's permission for a large loop or anything
like that. I guess that makes me a BCB listener. That's ok though. I
am very excited about this antenna and plan on spending a lot of hours
re-exploring the bands.

If you want, I can take some pics of my setup and area to which you can
compare your own. It might shed some light.


There is a good chance that if you stood on a ladder holding the radio
at the same location your reception would be about the same on the whip
although the levels would be lower without the active antenna
amplification.

Since the active antenna is an electrically small E mode active antenna
using a battery to drive it instead of a AC mains supply helped keep
the noise floor low so that using it was an actual improvement.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California


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Old November 9th 06, 04:40 AM posted to rec.radio.shortwave
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Posts: 1,324
Default pa0rdt-Mini-Whip


Telamon wrote:
In article . com,
"Steve" wrote:

Al Arduengo wrote:
I ordered one of these things after reading a blurb about it while
studying antennas. After placing the order I began to read reviews
and was honestly somewhat skeptical. I need not have been.

I received it yesterday and finally put it up today. I attached it
to an 8' section of PVC pipe and mounted the pipe at a 45 degree
angle to the side of my house from a second floor window. I ran
the coax down the pipe and into the window to my E1.

I really did not expect too much based on the reviews I had read
which seemed luke warm most of the time. This thing utterly amazed
me! I compared to the whip as well as my 75' long wire. It
absolutely smoked the whip and performed significantly better than
the wire. A quick gauge for me is how well I receive 5K, 10K, 15K.
I have NEVER been able to hear more than one at a time. Today
with the Mini-Whip, I heard 5,10 AND 15! Granted 15K was a little
low but it was readable. Scanning the BC bands I found that
compared to the internal whip (which is fairly good on the E1), I
was able to pull up signals that were buried in a noise floor at
about S4, to +20 over S9 in some cases. The average increase in
strength for any frequency I checked was 2-4 S units and often to
+30 over S9. And the really neat thing is that the signal was very
quiet. RTI with the internal whip was about S6 which is readable
but skirted in noise. With the mini-whip it was +20 and almost
full quieting! I expected this thing to be a noise amplifier. It
is indeed NOT that.

Anyway, that is my initial and not-so-scientific impression of the
pa0rdt-Mini-Whip. I feel like I have just discovered SWL after
doing it for 3 years.

Congrats to Roelof for a great work!

Are you in a rural, urban or suburban location? Have you grounded the
coax shield in any way where it meets the antenna? What kind of
antenna were you using before?

I tried the mini-whip and was disappointed, so I'm curious about why
it works so much better for other people than it does for me.


I think you are in an urban environment, which probably has a worse
local noise spectrum than at Al's location. You also probably used an
AC supply to power the antenna where Al is using a battery.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California


Not a bad guess, but I actually powered it off an SLA battery. The
problem wasn't noise though--or at least it didn't seem to be. I
compared it to an LF-Engineering H-800, a Wellbrook loop and later a
fairly short (roughly 30 ft) random wire attached to a matching
transformer and fed with coax at a height of around 25 feet or so. All
of these other antennas outperformed the mini-whip (though it was a
close call with the H-800).

Ah well. I will keep the mini whip and no doubt have fun trying to
figure out how to improve its performance.

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Old November 9th 06, 05:32 AM posted to rec.radio.shortwave
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First recorded activity by RadioBanter: Sep 2006
Posts: 6
Default pa0rdt-Mini-Whip


"Al Arduengo" a écrit dans le message de news:
...
I ordered one of these things after reading a blurb about it while
studying antennas. After placing the order I began to read reviews and
was honestly somewhat skeptical. I need not have been.

Hi Al ,where did you order it from ? website ?
Thanks, Frank



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