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Wellbrook Antenna/ Suggestions?
I am thinking about buying a Wellbrook ALA-1530 antenna to hookup to one of
the following radios: Icom 718, Icom 703 and/or a Radio Shack DX-398 (aka Sangean ATS-909). Yes I realize it is a receive only antenna. I will be using it for mostly shortwave and some AM. Has anybody had any experience good or bad with this unit? Does anybody have a suggestion of something better? Any comments appreciated. Use your computer's spare processing power to advance science. http://folding.stanford.edu/ Fold for Team 32 http://tinyurl.com/au396 FIREFOX BROWSER A free, better, faster, and more secure browser The one that those in the know use. http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/ |
Dear Cindy,
I do not own the Wellbrook ALA 1530 model; I own the Wellbrook ALA 330S. The difference between the two antennas is basically that the '1530 is optimized for the lower range of frequencies on SW, the MW band, and the LW band while the '330S is particularly good with the upper SW frequencies. (It works fairly well on MW but is relatively insensitive on LW.) It sounds to me as though the '1530 would be best for you, though it would be wise to e-mail or telephone Andy Ikin, Wellbrook's owner, for his personal advice to you, based on your listening habits. (His telephone number is 011 44 1591 620316. Remember the time difference.) The quality of construction of my '330S is superb; as all Wellbrook antennas are handmade by Mr. Ikin, the '1530 would be made to the same high standard. It is hard to believe that my '330S is, in fact, an active antenna; it is the quietest antenna I have ever owned. It makes summertime listening (the season most prone to atmospheric and other "natural" noise) as good as wintertime, in my experience. I should expect that the '1530 would perform similarly. I have my unit mounted atop an inexpensive Radio Shack TV rotator in my attic, where it works extremely well and is, of course, protected from the elements (the antennas are designed to be mounted outside but I must mount mine indoors due to local community requirements). Indoor mounting works extremely well and I should note that, contrary to the recommendations in the instruction sheet, placement is not at all critical. (That is the ONLY contradiction I can make to the excellent instruction sheet; follow its advice TO THE LETTER otherwise - that is VERY important.) Note that while a rotator is not absolutely necessary with the '330S (though it is a great help), it is with the '1530 as that antenna is even more directional than the '330S. I have had my Wellbrook antenna since March 2004. I am very pleased with it. In over forty years of shortwave listening I have never owned an antenna that performs as well. I hope the above is of some use to you. Best, Joe |
Wellbrook Antenna/ Suggestions?
Joe,
I really appreciate your long and detailed response. I ordered the 1530 and it should be here hopefully in about two weeks or so. With all of the good things that I've read about it I hope I'm not getting my hopes up to high. One thing I learned a long time ago though is that the antenna and antenna location make up a huge part of radio reception (and transmission). I have a small city lot and had planned to put the antenna in the attic but may end up putting it on the second floor instead for a couple of different reasons. I can't wait to try it out on my different radios. After it is put through its paces I'll report back here. Again I appreciate your detailed and helpful response. :) "Joe Analssandrini" wrote in message oups.com... Dear Cindy, I do not own the Wellbrook ALA 1530 model; I own the Wellbrook ALA 330S. The difference between the two antennas is basically that the '1530 is optimized for the lower range of frequencies on SW, the MW band, and the LW band while the '330S is particularly good with the upper SW frequencies. (It works fairly well on MW but is relatively insensitive on LW.) It sounds to me as though the '1530 would be best for you, though it would be wise to e-mail or telephone Andy Ikin, Wellbrook's owner, for his personal advice to you, based on your listening habits. (His telephone number is 011 44 1591 620316. Remember the time difference.) The quality of construction of my '330S is superb; as all Wellbrook antennas are handmade by Mr. Ikin, the '1530 would be made to the same high standard. It is hard to believe that my '330S is, in fact, an active antenna; it is the quietest antenna I have ever owned. It makes summertime listening (the season most prone to atmospheric and other "natural" noise) as good as wintertime, in my experience. I should expect that the '1530 would perform similarly. I have my unit mounted atop an inexpensive Radio Shack TV rotator in my attic, where it works extremely well and is, of course, protected from the elements (the antennas are designed to be mounted outside but I must mount mine indoors due to local community requirements). Indoor mounting works extremely well and I should note that, contrary to the recommendations in the instruction sheet, placement is not at all critical. (That is the ONLY contradiction I can make to the excellent instruction sheet; follow its advice TO THE LETTER otherwise - that is VERY important.) Note that while a rotator is not absolutely necessary with the '330S (though it is a great help), it is with the '1530 as that antenna is even more directional than the '330S. I have had my Wellbrook antenna since March 2004. I am very pleased with it. In over forty years of shortwave listening I have never owned an antenna that performs as well. I hope the above is of some use to you. Best, Joe |
Wellbrook Antenna/ Suggestions?
"Cindy" wrote in message ... Joe, I really appreciate your long and detailed response. I ordered the 1530 and it should be here hopefully in about two weeks or so. With all of the good things that I've read about it I hope I'm not getting my hopes up to high. One thing I learned a long time ago though is that the antenna and antenna location make up a huge part of radio reception (and transmission). I have a small city lot and had planned to put the antenna in the attic but may end up putting it on the second floor instead for a couple of different reasons. I can't wait to try it out on my different radios. After it is put through its paces I'll report back here. Again I appreciate your detailed and helpful response. :) Joe's our resident Wellbrook expert/advocate. Outside of calling Andy himself, you'd get the most info from Joe stateside. (I'm not knocking Joe at all, but rather find his info very helpful. In my case, it's that price point that's holding me back. Okay, that and my stubborn gene in me that says that I should be able to build one that'll work well, too.) --Mike L. |
Wellbrook Antenna/ Suggestions?
Before you mount the antenna indoors, I suggest that you at least try
it outdoors, if possible. I have the 330S and find that it performs much better outdoors. This isn't everyone's experience, but it'd probably only take a few minutes to determine whether it'd be worthwhile to locate it outside. Steve |
Wellbrook Antenna/ Suggestions?
Put it in your house.Somebody might come along and rip it off if you put
it out there on your small city lt. cuhulin |
Wellbrook Antenna/ Suggestions?
Dear Mike,
I can empathise with you and your thought that you could make one yourself. Unfortunately, thus far, many have tried to duplicate the Wellbrook antennas and all have failed. Yes the antenna is costly, but when you consider what you spend on a good receiver, and noting that the antenna is more important than the receiver in terms of reception, its price looks to be more reasonable. Also remember that you may buy many receivers over the years, but you'll buy a Wellbrook only once! Best, Joe |
Wellbrook Antenna/ Suggestions?
My Birthday is November 5.y'all can buy me a Wellbrook Antenna if y'all
want to.Hey,only joking.But my Birthday really is November 5 and I will be only 64 years young. cuhulin |
Wellbrook Antenna/ Suggestions?
You're right Joe... I would tell anybody to not cut corners on an antenna. I
wouldn't see anything wrong with buying a $130 Sony 7600 and a $230 Wellbrook antenna. If you wanted a little more elaborate receiver you could look at used ham gear and get something pretty decent for just a little bit more. I paid $390 for an Icom 703 brand new here a few months back. I think you can also get an Icom 718 with DSP for about $500 now. I don't think it's a whole lot different than an Icom R75 plus you get a transmitter on the 718 which will require a license. If you are a serious shortwave person (and I am not) $230 for an antenna is not a lot to spend. If I had more space, I would put up some really nice wire antennas which are really cheap to make. As far as making a loop, if I wanted to do it on the cheap then I could make one that would do pretty well. I might even be tempted just to buy the Sony 7600 and the Sony AN-1 Loop. You could do that whole shootin' match for less than $240 and still have a pretty decent (and portable) setup. That's about the cost of the Wellbrook. Yeah that sounds like a nice setup and you might even put up a wire antenna for $5 dollars more and have two different antenna setups. That sounds like the way to go for someone looking for something nice and affordable. Something even cheaper might be that Degen/Kaito radio everybody is so hot about right now. I think it's about $80 off of Ebay. Throw in 20 feet of light guage wire and a $1 alligator clip and you would have something decent and really cheap. If it has an external antenna output, add another $2 for the plug. Man is shortwave great or what? Sorry about rambling on... ;) P.S. Joe... Again thanks for your earlier input and I will post more when I get the Welbrook. "Joe Analssandrini" wrote in message oups.com... Dear Mike, I can empathise with you and your thought that you could make one yourself. Unfortunately, thus far, many have tried to duplicate the Wellbrook antennas and all have failed. Yes the antenna is costly, but when you consider what you spend on a good receiver, and noting that the antenna is more important than the receiver in terms of reception, its price looks to be more reasonable. Also remember that you may buy many receivers over the years, but you'll buy a Wellbrook only once! Best, Joe |
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