It allows you to use a separate antenna for receiving. Often such an antenna can provide a superior signal-to-noise ratio than the "main" antenna, especially if you're using a vertical for transmitting. I have a wire a couple of feet above the ground running along my fence that often provides superior reception over the doublet up high, especially on the lower-frequency bands where QRN is more of an issue. QRN, especially man-made QRN, is less pronounced down near the ground.
Of course, such an antenna has a lot less "gain" than a wire up high, which means it's not so good for transmitting, but gain is not a concern in receiving on the HF bands. The rig (especially the K2) has far more gain than necessary to overcome the losses in almost any antenna. So the whole story is in the signal-to-noise ratio. The better the S/N ratio, the better your K2 will hear, regardless of the gain of the antenna. Some dedicated people have even built underground doublets, letting the ground shield them from QRN while signals, although attenuated, are cut much less allowing them to hear signals their huge skywire up high couldn't detect. Of course such underground antennas are well insulated from the earth, often placed inside water-tight pipes. Other options are to use a small rotatable loop that allows you to null out QRM and peak the signal. Just because a transmitting antenna hears as well as it radiates does not mean that it's optimum for receiving! Ron AC7AC -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, December 06, 2005 5:27 Pme To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: [Elecraft] ARRL 160 & Rx antenna Julius, Would you (or anyone) please elaborate on the use of an Rx antenna? Thanks Bill K3UJ >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> This was the first time I used the Rx Antenna feature and it was invaluable. Thanks to everyone for a great 'test! 73, Julius n2wn K2/100 #3311 _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
