Hi Chris,
the quality of the received signal it determined by it's SNR. So if you have an antenna where QRM/QRN are at a higher level than the RX noise it makes no sense to get a larger antenna (= produce more signal and noise).
As QRM / QRN on 137kHz and even on 500kHz is rather high even with a small antenna you will get more QRM / QRN and it will perform as well as a big antenna.
So it seems absolutely normal to me that a small whip will performp as well as a big wire antenna (for RX !).
More important that size might be other properties such as directivity (eg with a loop you can null out a QSM source).
I do use my "big" TX antenna for RX, but do need to attenuate the signal by at least 20dB to avoid RX overloading.
73, Rik ON7YD - OR7T
Hi Mal and LF,
Well, all I can say is that here the signal to noise ratio on RX is better on my PA0RDT than it is on my long wire (inverted 'L'). I have always thought this a bit strange, quite often weak signals that cannot be seen on the
wire are perfectly copied on the PA0RDT. This applies from 136kHz to 3.8MHz. I cannot see what else it can be other than local noise/QRM level. 80m is another prime example where the noise has gradually got worse over the years here.
Vy 73,
Chris, G4AYT, Whitstable, Kent.
