Wasn't Kiwa planning to market an active antenna for SW at one time? I
wonder if that plan is still in the works. Kiwa's owner appears to be a
pretty talented guy. I gotta believe he needs more of a challange than
performing receiver upgrades.

Has anybody messed with the AOR loops. I want to know how they
compare to the Wellbrooks.

I have one of the LA-350 loops from AOR. It's no match for the
Wellbrooks. It's a good antenna, but it's for indoor use only. That's a
profound disadvantage.

It's fairly easy to find an outdoor location for one of the Wellbrooks
and it would be trivially easy to find a spot for one of the H-800
antennas, since they're only around 26 inches in length. There's almost
always a way to get an antenna outside the house, where it's meant to
be!

The LF looks like an amplified whip. I seriously doubt it would be in
the Wellbrook league. Those amplified whip are really noisy, especially
at lower frequencies.

Maybe in the Mojave you can get away with an amplified whip.


Mark S. Holden wrote:
KA6UUP wrote:
Check with them on this.
I contacted both LF Eng. and Grove about this shortly after the LF 900
came out and they agreed to provide a BNC connector as an extra cost
option.
73,
Chuck


I'm not in the market for one now, but I'll keep it in mind for the
future.

At the time I bought the 800, it was second only to the Wellbrook for
active antennas. The 900 might surpass it.

Mark S. Holden wrote:


Unfortunately, they don't seem to offer the option of having bnc
connectors instead of a permanently attached cable between the antenna
and the coupler.

LF Engineering offered this on the h-800 for another $20 or so, and I
thought it was a good idea.

I used to use an H-800 for my portable setup, and it was a nice
antenna, but using it as a portable meant the coax was stressed where
it enters the probe.

So would a Wellbrook 330 or 1530 placed in a window frame be better
than the AOR models. To place a unit outside is not a option for me.

I know two people with Wellbrook loops indoors. They work, but look
goofy of course. In a home office or radio room, who cares if it looks
odd. You need to rig up some support. I use a cement patio umbrella
stand that uses ordinary PVC. OSH sells them. I'm not really sure being
near the window helps since you are receiving a sky wave, not a signal
beamed along the horizon.

I agree that antennas out in the open work best, but HF is not a line
of sight reception. Height doesn't make right for HF, at least not for
a loop. [Beams would be a different story.] . Of course, outdoors means
it won't be close to your noise sources.

I had something kind of odd happen today with my Wellbrook. The
strongest BCB station I can receive is on 680. It is so strong that my
7030 kicks in the attenuator. Even with the atennuator, it reads about
S+40. Anyway, today, the 3rd harmonic of the station, 2040, showed up
in the shortwave band. If I hadn't use the same gear before, I would
have blamed the amp (ALA100) or the radio. The harmonic signal was in
the mud, maybe S4, but clear enough to hear the station ID.



MojaveDxer wrote:
So would a Wellbrook 330 or 1530 placed in a window frame be better
than the AOR models. To place a unit outside is not a option for me.

Actually, I find the H-800 to be astoundingly quiet. It's so small and
so easy to situate in a quiet spot. And once it's situated, it's as
quiet as its location.

Wellbrook makes other models that are specifically for indoor use.
They're smaller than the 330 and the 1530 and semi-rigid. I don't know
if they are capable of the same high level of performance as the 330 or
the 1530, but the 330 / 1530 couldn't meet their full potential anyway
if you can really only use them indoors.

And why would this vertical be quieter than any other vertical? Seems
to me you can't fight physics.

Even in a quiet spot, a whip plus fet amp will be noisier than a
magnetic loop due to the nature of the noise sources.


wrote:
Actually, I find the H-800 to be astoundingly quiet. It's so small and
so easy to situate in a quiet spot. And once it's situated, it's as
quiet as its location.

An excellent question. I wish I had an excellent answer. I don't know
why the H-800 is so quiet. I just go with whatever works. Maybe someone
else can help out with greater detail.

wrote:
And why would this vertical be quieter than any other vertical? Seems
to me you can't fight physics.

Even in a quiet spot, a whip plus fet amp will be noisier than a
magnetic loop due to the nature of the noise sources.


wrote:
Actually, I find the H-800 to be astoundingly quiet. It's so small and
so easy to situate in a quiet spot. And once it's situated, it's as
quiet as its location.