[Elecraft] searching for post by Wayne n6kr about counterpoise

[Bob McGraw K4TAX]

I've used a separate receive antenna..........once.   Then I noticed 
when I transmitted on my dedicated transmit antenna,  I fried the front 
end of my receiver.    Won't do that again.   Of course I was a green 
General op at the time and that was in 1960.   Since then.....well I 
chalk everything and every error and every oops to educational 
expense.   And yes, I've paid out a lot and I've learned a lot.    As a 
Novice I learned that DPDT knife switch worked every time and reliably 
too.  Since then, some 58 years in the passing, I've always used the 
same antenna for receiving as transmitting.  Works for me.

On the other hand, some ops say a blah blah blah antenna is quieter than 
a blah blah blah antenna.   Or my antenna is flat from 160M - 6M.  Yeah, 
well so is my dummy load on both counts. There is no free ride folks.   
Yes it may be quieter because one of the nulls just happens to favor a 
noise source or a host of other reasons.  Or the system loss, feed line 
and matching network brings the signals and noise down closer to the 
noise floor of the receiver.  Once the signals and noise are about 10 to 
15 dB above the noise floor of the receive, the receiver begins to 
behave in a very nice manner.  Signals can be heard more effectively.   
I recall Rob Sherwood has written a good bit on this topic.  Worth the read.

73

Bob, K4TAX


On 9/9/2018 12:18 PM, Michael Blake via Elecraft wrote:
> Before I could afford a DowKey I used a DPDT knife switch with my AT1 and BC348. This was in 1957. I have never used a separate receiver antenna either.
>
> 73 - Mike - K9JRI
>
>
>> On Sep 9, 2018, at 12:58 PM, Wes Stewart <wes_n7ws at triconet.org> wrote:
>>
>> I suppose that if you're writing a book that has receiving antenna in its title, you're going to have to make a case for them even if you have to stretch a bit.
>>
>> I remember bolting a 115 VAC coil Dowkey relay on the back of my DX100 for antenna change over in 1960 or so.  It was several years before I had a transceiver. The idea that separate antennas were the norm until transceivers came along is nonsense, IMHO of course.  Even the publisher of this book, ARRL, had many QST articles, such as "A Novice T.R. Switch", by Lew McCoy in the January 1961 issue that popularized T.R. switches.  Lew even stated, "It is always to the amateur's advantage to use the same antenna for both transmitting and receiving."
>>
>> In the scheme of things, if my memory of the last 60 years isn't too faulty, separate RX antennas are a relatively new thing, popularized for the lower hand bands (40, 80 and 160), where of course they are supposed to have advantages. Personally, I'm two (SV/A and FR/G) away from top of the Honor Roll and have 9-band DXCC and I have never used a separate RX antenna.  I guess I'll have to try one someday.
>>
>> Wes  N7WS
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> On 9/9/2018 5:58 AM, hawley, charles j jr wrote:
>>> The ARRL recently published a book “Receiving Antennas for the Radio Amateur”. It maintains that “The function of transmitting antennas is to radiate power efficiently, while the function of receiving antennas is to present the best signal-to-noise ratio to the receiver”. It maintains that “using the same antenna for transmitting and receiving roughly coincided with the advent of the transceiver in the 1950s and 1960s.” And “The glaring differences in priorities between transmitting and receiving antennas becomes...well...glaring...when we start looking into the concept of efficiency.” And “some of the most effective receiving antennas are abysmally poor performers when efficiency alone is considered”.
>>> It’s an interesting book.
>>>
>>> Chuck
>>> KE9UW
>>>
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