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 <[email protected]> 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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