too good to be true?

[zachtheterrible]

Im thinking about making myself an active antenna to use with my handheld radio.

Are these things all that they're supposed to be? will they really increase my reception that much?

thanx :lol:

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Im thinking about making myself an active antenna to use with my handheld radio.

Are these things all that they're supposed to be? will they really increase my reception that much?

It's basically just a preamplifier, it may help reception of weak signals, but it will amplify any noise as well - results can be very variable.

Feeding a decent aerial into your radio will probably give better performance.

 

[zachtheterrible]

thanx Nigel, i think i will build a decent one when i get done with reading my ARRL handbook (that way i know its decent)

 

[stevez]

It's possible that adding a preamplifier or additional antenna could make things worse, believe it or not. Unless the antenna and/or preamp is also tuned to the desired frequency it will likely increase the level of undesired signals at the input causing all sorts of problems. A scanner or other wideband receiver will behave poorly in a city where there are lots of transmitters for this reason.

I have a shortwaver receiver of moderate quality and I live within 3 miles of a 50kw AM broadcast station. There is a lot of noise or 'junk' from 1.8 mHz up to 7 mHz or so that goes away when I put an AM broadcast filter on the antenna. The stuff that I want to hear comes thru better. Clearly the out-of-band but very powerful signal is gettting thru the front end. A pre-amp could have similar effect in raising the level of an undesired station.

Best to try it and see - then be prepared to take it further if required.