Scott..I have had similiar results as mentioned by KC3OL..
My miniwhip has performed very good even as good as my LF loop that I used
for a couple of years..
I have not noted any intermod problems and it seems to perform well into HF
although I pretty much use it exclusively on LF.
Get nice signal from 60KHz and 75Khz and down into the VLF--18 and 20Khz.
Mine is up about 35 feet in the trees behind the house 50-75 ft from the
house.
Rx is the TS870.
de Lloyd W3NF
----- Original Message -----
From: "Scott Tilley" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>; "LowFER at LW Cafe" <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, October 03, 2006 2:56 AM
Subject: LF: miniwhip miniresults...?
Dear Miniwhipper-snappers
I'm looking for some insight.
I built a miniwhip exactly as described in PA0RDT's article and set it up
on a 20' nonmetallic pole way up in the air on the corner of my house
(about 40' up). At first it was overwhelmed with intermod from every
local AM braodcaster around, but some creative grounding solved most of
that. However, it appears to perform much below the rave reviews I've
read on the reflectors from others.
It does hear on LF but very poorly. An S9 (S0 noise floor) signal on my
active loop from WD2XSH/20 (N6LF) on 506KHz is barely detectable on the
miniwhip. On 2200m it makes a great light dimmer detector and works well
as my noise antenna for my noise canceler but that's about it. It
doesn't even come close to touching my active loop or high Q vertical on
RX.
I do agree with Roelof's findings about an E-field antenna making a better
urban antenna then a loop as my big vertical always has a lower local
noise level then the loop and hears way better (I'm a believer Mal!)
On HF it seems fine with a good SNR and pleasant reception of anything I
care to compare with my other HF antennas. It does seem to perform better
on the higher end of its rated range.
So guys what's the deal? What am I doing wrong to bring this little
miniwhip to life or is it all hype?
73 Scott
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