Radiohead wrote:

"Dave Holford" wrote in message
...


Radiohead wrote:

I am a relative newbie to the world of SW.

I've just taken possession of a second-hand Kenwood R5000 comms
receiver. It
looks like a very nice piece of kit. It's not really practical for me to
rig
an outside antenna system at the moment, but I have heard that you can
get
SW antennas designed for indoor use. Can anyone recommend any? I am in
the
UK.

And if anyone has any thoughts on the R5000, feel free.


I used one for some time in an antenna restricted area and had very good
results with both DATONG AD-370 and DRESSLER ARA-30 active antennas
mounted in the attic.

There are some terrible junk gadgets sold as active antennas but these
have been so good to me that they are now mounted outdoors and are
coming up on 20years continuous service.

The DATONG is a dipole configuration and DATONG makes some really good
stuff but appear to have moved to the professional surveillance field so
I don't know if their antennas are still available at a good price. They
are a UK company so you might look around.

The DRESSLER is a short fireglas whip and a quick check shows DRESSLER
active antennas at www.hamradio.co.uk and several other sites; although
the ARA-30 is probably not available any more, the ARA-40 and ARA-60
appear to be more modern versions.

I have had many years of enjoyment with my R-5000 and those antennas.

Hi Dave

I had a look at www.hamradio.co.uk and read about the Dresslers, which look
good. I then found that the dealer (Martin Lynch) is located quite near to
my house, which is very convenient!

I phoned him up to see if he had any Dresslers in stock. He does, but
interestingly he recommended another antenna which he thought would be
better for my purposes - the Miracle Whip. He also stocks them.

They seem really good - easy to connect and don't require any power supply.
Have you or anyone else had any experience with these?

http://www.miracleantenna.com/MiracleWhip.html


The Miracle Whip is designed for use with transmitters, the controls
match the antenna to the transmitter output impedance for maximum
transmitter power output - for a receiver I doubt you would notice a lot
of difference on the HF bands between it and a few feet of wire.

By the way - don't try to transmit with a Dressler or similar active
antenna, you will cook it! With a very few exceptions active antennas
are for receiver only.

Dave