[Lowfer] Active Whips

[Dexter McIntyre W4DEX]

pbunn wrote:
> I built that antenna last year making a nice PCB board for it and using the PC Board as the antenna element and installed chokes. The antenna was a very poor performer and it biased me against active probes. The chokes probably made it a bad performer. My Clifton Labs probe antenna is mounted on a 8 foot mast in the water at the edge of a small pond 300 feet from any house or power line. The whip is extended about 6 feet. Maybe I should elevate it more?
Interesting comments about the RDT design.  I wish I had done more 
meaningful active antenna comparisons last fall while I was out in the 
open operating portable in the van.  It's way to cold for me to try that 
now but my interest has been renewed.  Many years ago when the only 
active antenna I had, a simple MPF-102 design, was that it performed 
much better mounted on top of the van than on a mast beside the van.  
Even with the antenna elevated twenty feet the antenna gave much more 
signal on a mag mount right on top of the van.  This antenna was built 
in the coil base of an NMO VHF 5/8th wave mobile antenna and used the 
original approximate 36" whip. 

Dex