[Milsurplus] RAK and E-Field Probes.

[David Stinson]

Tell ya a true story about my first experience with an E-Field Probe:  Nevada desert, early 1980s.  VERY radio-quiet location.  I had a couple of long (understatement) "beverage antennas," which were really just hundreds of feet of telephone field wire stretched across the desert.  They worked awesome, but some of the guys kept going on about their E-Field probes.  So I got one and tried it.  

I honestly thought I had broken it.  Compared to what I was using, it was deaf as a post.  So I sent it to one of the guys to look at and compare with his "great E-Field antenna."  He informed me it was working fine and compared favorably with his.   When I got it back, I tried it again with the same results.  The guys thought this near-dummy-load was "golden" only because they'd had nothing other than random-wire and 40-mtr dipole noise generators with which to compare it.  So of course it seemed heavenly, the way a starving man would find a crust of stale bread and a cup of water "heavenly."  In reality, it's "better than nothing," but just barely.
I'm sure others will have a different perspective, and God bless them.  This is my experience and why I don't mess with E-Field probes on Longwave.  A good tuned loop will whup the pants off one, IMHO.

GL OM ES 73 DE Dave AB5S