Mini Whip Antenna Series On Baluns

It is quite a cost-effective active antenna for SWL and DXers.

It is a small antenna, it is very suitable for those who is difficult to have an half-wave dipole antenna for LF and HF bands, limited by space of your garden.

You will need to install it up high and preferably away from the house as Mini-Whips are quite susceptible to local noise pickup.

Another very important point is that Mini-Whips need to have a good ground connection.

However, if the mast is conductive, the antennas plate must of course not be mounted besides but above the mast.

Antenna not tested yet but quality and workmanship looks good.

Build quality is very good The seller told me to buy a power supply at 12-15 volts at 150 ma (center ), which i did.

If it is an RTL-SDR, why would you have both If it isnt an RTL, then may I ask what it is.

But I live in an apartment, so I cant do any installing of large antennas.

So after doing the obligatory Google search, I narrowed it down to two antennas.

The Wellbrook Loop Antenna and the (much cheaper) PA0RDT Mini-Whip.

Being short of cash, I decided to buy a cheap Mini-Whip from eBay.

Well, thats not going to happen where I live, so I needed a way of getting it to work in a regular apartment.

So I made a makeshift antenna holder from a piece of plastic pipe and installed it outside my window.

The Wellbrook Loop Antenna also has active amplification but picks up more of the magnetic field opposed to the electric, so its not as sensitive to noise sources you usually find in homes.

But I couldnt afford a Loop Antenna, so PA0RDT Mini-Whip it is (for now.).

I had to move some very noisy USB chargers that probably have poorly designed switching power supplies.

Ferrite beads on a lot of cables also improved the noise floor.

But you cant always fix the problem at the source, like neighbors plasma TVs, or two of the most massive antennas in Stockholm, just five kilometers from my location, blinking away annoyingly on the horizon.

I guess a gas-powered metal saw and a couple of years of jail time could fix that problem as well, but alas, I think Ill stick to trying to fix local interference.

Well, for me it makes a huge difference I must have a well-behaved grounding network connected to the radiator because, without it, I cant receive anything.

Just scraped off some paint from the radiator, and connected an 18 gauge wire between it and the outside of the BNC connector at the antenna.

Mini Whip Antenna Series On Baluns

But after watching one of my favorite YouTubers, TRX Bench, I stumbled across his series on Baluns.

In one of the videos, he shows a common mode choke and how to wind it, so I thought Id give it a shot.

And this my friends helped I put the choke inside an aluminum case bought for cheap on eBay and added a bypass switch to be able to see the impact.

So now I can hear a lot more faint stations that I couldnt pick up before.

I also added an external RTL-SDR.COM FM Notch Filter even though the SDRPlay RSP1A SDR receiver already has one built-in.

This toroid is probably not the optimal one, but apparently, it worked.

Im thinking of trying to put two T44-6 stacked on top of each other and rewire a new choke.

Or Ill end up buying an Amidon FT240-43 and try that one out.

Its going to be fun comparing the two antennas and see which one comes out on top.