Yesterday I took down the Wellbrook 330S antenna I've been using. I
wanted to get this little chore out of the way, as I'm moving to a new
home soon and will of course be taking the loop with me. I decided
that, until the move, I'd put my LF Engineering H-800 antenna back into
service.

After doing this and reacquainting myself with the H-800, I think I'm
going to have to do some more careful comparisons between it and the
Wellbrook. The H-800 is surprisingly...I'd even say shockingly...good.
It's markedly better than the Wellbrook below 5 mhz. Maybe this isn't
so surprising, since the 330S isn't optimized for those frequencies.
Still, at some point I'm going to have to do a more careful comparison
of them above 5 mhz....just for the heck of it.. I did notice that
reception of Radio Australia on 9580 khz on the H-800 was better than
I'd heard in a long while.

This confirms my impression that the H-800 is one of the best deals
around on an active antenna, even though it's not particularly "talked
about".

If anyone's compared the H-800 to a McKay-Dymek or Dressler antenna,
I'd like to know the results.

Steve

In article .com,
wrote:

Yesterday I took down the Wellbrook 330S antenna I've been using. I
wanted to get this little chore out of the way, as I'm moving to a new
home soon and will of course be taking the loop with me. I decided
that, until the move, I'd put my LF Engineering H-800 antenna back into
service.

After doing this and reacquainting myself with the H-800, I think I'm
going to have to do some more careful comparisons between it and the
Wellbrook. The H-800 is surprisingly...I'd even say shockingly...good.
It's markedly better than the Wellbrook below 5 mhz. Maybe this isn't
so surprising, since the 330S isn't optimized for those frequencies.
Still, at some point I'm going to have to do a more careful comparison
of them above 5 mhz....just for the heck of it.. I did notice that
reception of Radio Australia on 9580 khz on the H-800 was better than
I'd heard in a long while.

This confirms my impression that the H-800 is one of the best deals
around on an active antenna, even though it's not particularly "talked
about".

If anyone's compared the H-800 to a McKay-Dymek or Dressler antenna,
I'd like to know the results.

It's harder than you think making antenna comparisons. As an example my
loop antenna generally works better during the dark hours and the folded
dipole works better daytime. It could be due to the reception angle of
the antennas but that is what I have found. Sometimes one antenna just
works better then another depending on conditions and frequency.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California

Congrats on buying a new home. It would be interesting if you could
do a shootout with the Wellbrook, LF and a 75' longwire if you have the
space for it. Do you have one of the AOR loops also. I am in an
apartment and looking into something to mate with my R-75. Looking for
better performance than what this indoor ceiling loop and Sony AN LP-1
can provide.

Maybe after I'm settled I'll do a more thorough test. Telemon is right
to point out that, if such a comparison is to be done correctly, there
are a lot of variables to control for.

You might consider the H-800. It's available in the US and would easily
outperform the AN LP-1. It's small and easy to locate in a quiet spot.
Unlike the Sony loop, you could mount it outdoors, which is key. An
excellent value for the money. I'm surprised that it doesn't get more
positive press, but then I don't think the guys at LF Engineering have
worked that hard to market it.

LF Engineering is a good company to deal with, by the way. I found them
to be very helpful.

I know a couple of people who've complained that they had overload
problems with the H-800. I suspect this was more the fault of their
receivers than the H-800. However, in any case, these problems would
disappear with a good high pass filter.

Steve

There is now avaiable made by LF their H900 which has higher gain and
more resilience to local transmitters. It is available only thru Grove

http://www.grove-ent.com/antennas.html

Paul

wrote:
There is now avaiable made by LF their H900 which has higher gain and
more resilience to local transmitters. It is available only thru Grove

http://www.grove-ent.com/antennas.html

Paul


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.

Should not a long wire always be made as an End Fire Zepp, this is a
conclusion I made over the weekend.

All long wires should be EF Zepps IMHO

Paul

One thing not to get hung up on in antenna testing is the signal
strength IF the antenna is active. With amplification, you can get any
S reading you want. It's not a figure of merit for signal quality.

I made a "form" of sorts where I can easily test out different wire
(i.e. loop) configurations with the Wellbrook ALA 100. If you put too
many turns of wire on the form, there seems to be a resonance. I was
getting a lot of hash around 7Mhz with 24 turns at 8ft per turn.
Cuttting that to 6 turns seems pretty good, but I'm still experimenting
with it.

I use sprinker risers to run the wire over. The type I used has grooves
on it. The grooves holds the wire in place. I can't find a good photo
of it on the net, but the risers are sold by Lowes.




Telamon wrote:
In article .com,
wrote:

Yesterday I took down the Wellbrook 330S antenna I've been using. I
wanted to get this little chore out of the way, as I'm moving to a new
home soon and will of course be taking the loop with me. I decided
that, until the move, I'd put my LF Engineering H-800 antenna back into
service.

After doing this and reacquainting myself with the H-800, I think I'm
going to have to do some more careful comparisons between it and the
Wellbrook. The H-800 is surprisingly...I'd even say shockingly...good.
It's markedly better than the Wellbrook below 5 mhz. Maybe this isn't
so surprising, since the 330S isn't optimized for those frequencies.
Still, at some point I'm going to have to do a more careful comparison
of them above 5 mhz....just for the heck of it.. I did notice that
reception of Radio Australia on 9580 khz on the H-800 was better than
I'd heard in a long while.

This confirms my impression that the H-800 is one of the best deals
around on an active antenna, even though it's not particularly "talked
about".

If anyone's compared the H-800 to a McKay-Dymek or Dressler antenna,
I'd like to know the results.

It's harder than you think making antenna comparisons. As an example my
loop antenna generally works better during the dark hours and the folded
dipole works better daytime. It could be due to the reception angle of
the antennas but that is what I have found. Sometimes one antenna just
works better then another depending on conditions and frequency.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California