Antenna port limitations

Useful information regarding antennas for SDR products.
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Paul
Posts: 355
Joined: Fri Feb 17, 2017 9:52 am
Location: SW UK

Antenna port limitations

Post by Paul » Wed Nov 29, 2017 9:12 am

Having had the RSP2 for a whiie now and achieved generally pretty satisfactory results with the antenna setup that is possible/practicable for me at present, which is:

Longwire on the Hi-Z Port, H/V/UHF Discone (with some HF capability) on Port B and an active mini-whip on Port A.

Whilst I note that Ports A & B are rated to a low frequency of 1.5Mhz, the mini-whip on Port A receives remarkably well down to frequencies in the MF and LF area with the advantage of being able to use the MF/VHF filter.

In this range, the mini-whip significantly outperforms the longwire, whilst a higher ranges the reverse applies.

The time signals at 6o Khz and 77.5 Khz are perhaps unsurprisingly loud & clear and I am able to receive a good few NDB transmissions.

The question that I have, is whether to swap the mini-whip and longwire over - what might the gains/losses be?

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g1hbe
Posts: 494
Joined: Sat Jan 17, 2015 3:28 pm
Location: Cheshire, UK

Re: Antenna port limitations

Post by g1hbe » Wed Nov 29, 2017 9:30 am

I've found that the A&B inputs get slowly worse as the frequency drops, especially the one that has the bias-t. Hi-z is much better at LF. Long wires can be very bad if there is local noise about. I can't hear anything much on my vertical wire no matter what aerial port I use! So I use a Wellbrook loop on the Hi-z port for all my listening from 10 KHz to 30 MHz, and it allows me to get good, clear sigs all the way down to 20 KHz. For VHF/UHF I use A & B with home-made dipoles and yagis. Seems to be the best combination for me.

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Andy

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