Shortwave Antenna
 

A question to the group and please don't get mad at me ! Question is what do
you think is the best commercial built antenna? I am using a Alpha Delta
DX-Ultra now and I think it is a good antenna but always looking for better!

Hello Bill,

While I have no personal experience with the Alpha Delta DX-Ultra,
PASSPORT rates it the best of all commercially-built antennas they have
tested.

Of course, a better antenna would be an array of several 300-feet
towers and remember - the only thing separating you from them is the
fact that you haven't yet won $100,000,000.00 in the lottery so that
you could pay for them. Get with it kid! Win that lottery! ;-)

Failing that, PASSPORT (and I personally) recommend the Wellbrook ALA
330S Active Loop Antenna as an excellent supplement to the DX-Ultra,
especially in the summertime when there is lots of atmospheric noise.
The Wellbrook EXCELS in attenuating that noise (it is not responsive to
it) and it also GREATLY attenuates local electrical noise. The antenna
is so quiet that this past winter, when few on the east coast of the US
were able to hear Australia's 2300 UTC transmission on 21740 kHz, I was
able to hear it, if not loud, certainly clear (it was coming in at an
indicated S-3(!) to S-5 on my AOR AR7030 Plus receiver). And lately, as
last year, this antenna/radio combination is as quiet in the summer as
in the winter.

You might want to check out the latest reviews of this antenna in the
2005 PASSPORT, the 2005 WRTH, and Jay Allen's review on RadioIntel.com.

If you do much tropical-band DXing or other faint-signal DXing during
the summer, in my opinion, you will find no better antenna than the
Wellbrook ALA 330S.

Best,

Joe

You're just saying that because you haven't experienced the JOY of owning a
DE31!



"Joe Analssandrini" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hello Bill,

While I have no personal experience with the Alpha Delta DX-Ultra,
PASSPORT rates it the best of all commercially-built antennas they have
tested.

Of course, a better antenna would be an array of several 300-feet
towers and remember - the only thing separating you from them is the
fact that you haven't yet won $100,000,000.00 in the lottery so that
you could pay for them. Get with it kid! Win that lottery! ;-)

Failing that, PASSPORT (and I personally) recommend the Wellbrook ALA
330S Active Loop Antenna as an excellent supplement to the DX-Ultra,
especially in the summertime when there is lots of atmospheric noise.
The Wellbrook EXCELS in attenuating that noise (it is not responsive to
it) and it also GREATLY attenuates local electrical noise. The antenna
is so quiet that this past winter, when few on the east coast of the US
were able to hear Australia's 2300 UTC transmission on 21740 kHz, I was
able to hear it, if not loud, certainly clear (it was coming in at an
indicated S-3(!) to S-5 on my AOR AR7030 Plus receiver). And lately, as
last year, this antenna/radio combination is as quiet in the summer as
in the winter.

You might want to check out the latest reviews of this antenna in the
2005 PASSPORT, the 2005 WRTH, and Jay Allen's review on RadioIntel.com.

If you do much tropical-band DXing or other faint-signal DXing during
the summer, in my opinion, you will find no better antenna than the
Wellbrook ALA 330S.

Best,

Joe

"Bill Amann Jr" wrote in message
...
A question to the group and please don't get mad at me ! Question is
what do
you think is the best commercial built antenna? I am using a Alpha
Delta
DX-Ultra now and I think it is a good antenna but always looking for
better!

Depends on what you need and what your limitations
are. Some people need a loop like the Wellbrook
to help their reception; some can use a dipole; and
some can use a sloper. Some, like me, don't have the
space for a big dipole or sloper, and don't have the
ready cash for a loop like the Wellbrook (well, there's
also the matter of managing to scrounge up the funds
for a Drake R8/R8A/R8B, too), so a random wire
attached to a 9:1 transformer will have to do.

Of course, when I get that swamp white oak planted
in the backyard in the next year or two, I'll lose my
prime location for the random wire, so I may have to
invest in a Wellbrook in the long term (until the
trees get big, that is).

--Mike L.

"Bill Amann Jr" wrote:

A question to the group and please don't get mad at me ! Question is what do
you think is the best commercial built antenna? I am using a Alpha Delta
DX-Ultra now and I think it is a good antenna but always looking for better!


If you have the space for it, I would recommend a terminated, tilted,
folded dipole (TTFD or T2FD). Barker & Williamson (B&W) makes some
for hams for transmit purposes -- I picked up a new-in-box SWL version
they discontinued a few years ago. I'm very pleased with mine.

Read about them he

http://www.hard-core-dx.com/nordicdx...wire/t2fd.html

B&W antennas are available through Ham Radio Outlet

http://www.hamradio.com


--
Eric F. Richards

"Nature abhors a vacuum tube." -- Myron Glass,
often attributed to J. R. Pierce, Bell Labs, c. 1940

"Eric F. Richards" wrote:

"Bill Amann Jr" wrote:

A question to the group and please don't get mad at me ! Question is what do
you think is the best commercial built antenna? I am using a Alpha Delta
DX-Ultra now and I think it is a good antenna but always looking for better!


If you have the space for it, I would recommend a terminated, tilted,
folded dipole (TTFD or T2FD). Barker & Williamson (B&W) makes some
for hams for transmit purposes -- I picked up a new-in-box SWL version
they discontinued a few years ago. I'm very pleased with mine.

Read about them he

http://www.hard-core-dx.com/nordicdx...wire/t2fd.html

B&W antennas are available through Ham Radio Outlet

http://www.hamradio.com

I built several and was never really impressed with their performance.

I went back to the transformer matched wires or band specific dipoles or inverted
vee's.

dxAce
Michigan
USA

Thanks a lot everyone for the info sounds like the DX-ULTRA might just be my
best antenna. But the T2FD look great also I could put one up that is over
70 feet long without much trouble. At my location a sloper antenna would fit
the yard best! But if I was to ever hit the lottery I would move out of town
and put up one of those log periodic with a 100 foot boom and about 500 feet
in the air!!!
"dxAce" wrote in message
...


"Eric F. Richards" wrote:

"Bill Amann Jr" wrote:

A question to the group and please don't get mad at me ! Question is
what do
you think is the best commercial built antenna? I am using a Alpha
Delta
DX-Ultra now and I think it is a good antenna but always looking for
better!


If you have the space for it, I would recommend a terminated, tilted,
folded dipole (TTFD or T2FD). Barker & Williamson (B&W) makes some
for hams for transmit purposes -- I picked up a new-in-box SWL version
they discontinued a few years ago. I'm very pleased with mine.

Read about them he

http://www.hard-core-dx.com/nordicdx...wire/t2fd.html

B&W antennas are available through Ham Radio Outlet

http://www.hamradio.com

I built several and was never really impressed with their performance.

I went back to the transformer matched wires or band specific dipoles or
inverted
vee's.

dxAce
Michigan
USA