[Elecraft] RX Ant K3 Preamp vs External Preamp

[Jim Brown]

On 4/26/2020 8:26 PM, Rich wrote:
> I was talking about RX antennas,  like Beverages and such, so mainly 40m 
> and 80m.   I am happy with the K3 pre-amp I was just curious to what 
> others use

As always, W3LPL's response is pretty much on the money for this. The 
slightly longer short answer is that it depends on the antenna and the 
noise where you use it. Some RX antennas have far higher output than 
others. Beverages, for example, have fairly high output, so the preamp 
built into most radios is plenty good enough, even in a quiet location. 
Smaller antennas are more likely to need an outboard preamp. Some need a 
preamp at the antenna. There's greater discussion of this in this piece 
that I wrote for National Contest Journal a few years ago. 
http://k9yc.com/RXChokesTransformers.pdf

73, Jim K9YC