Re: Active antenna?

Ah, in search of the Holy Grail, eh? Unless you're out in the country, miles from any transmitter (broadcast, military or otherwise), then overload will be a problem. Not necessarily in your receiver, but in the amplifier as well. I reckon the VR5000 has enough gain for most purposes (In New Zealand I receive WWVH on 5MHz from a VHF/UHF discone about the same as on a dedicated HF receiver (JRC NRD515) on a longwire with tuner in the evening.) You can't receive or amplify what's not there and most amplifiers add their own noise to the already weak signal, so you can actually be worse off. Your best bet is to get your antennae up as high as you can and have separate antennae for BC, HF and VHF. Buy or make an antenna tuner and you'll have a good system. The VR5000 is not a brilliant performer on HF. It's OK for the HF broadcast bands with good signals, but for winkling out those elusive small signals amongst the mud, forget it! There are better antennae for AM broadcast bands - you could try your VR5000 with a loop antenna. Plenty of designs around - some with amplifiers, good screening and directional discrimination abilities. 

--- In [email protected], "clovisb31" <clovisb31@...> wrote:
>
> Anyone using an active antenna inside or outside with your radio? I'm wondering about front end overload. This would be for AM broadcast through 30 MHz.
> 73,
> Shane
>