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Reviews For: PA0RDT mini whip antenna

Category: Antennas: VLF/LF/HF Receive only

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Review Summary For : PA0RDT mini whip antenna
Reviews: 3MSRP: 2017 was €39 euros
Description:
The antenna is designed and each one is custom built by Roelof Bakker (callsign PA0RDT) a radio amateur from The Netherlands. Many of Roelofs customers like listening to the lower frequencies, this antenna seems to have a loyal following with LF/Broardcast AM radio enthusiasts as well as regular HF ssb listeners.
Product is in production
More Info: https://www.qrz.com/db/PA0RDT
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
3535
G4AON Rating: 2023-09-23
Easy home build project Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The little 2 transistor PA0RDT circuit is probably one of the very best active antennas around. The "secret" is to install it as far from electrical noise as you can, mine is in the corner of the garden.

An easy improvement is to add a transistor switch to the bias Tee unit (dc injection unit), with this you can remove the power whenever your transceiver goes to transmit.

Mine is in use every weekday morning feeding Skimmer spots to the RBN, as well as providing diversity receive on my K4D.

G4VRR Rating: 2023-09-22
Unexpectedy Good "Antenna". Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The PA0RDT Miniwhip is good at ruffling feathers amongst the antenna pundits, and it deserves a little more context beyond a one liner "great" or "snake oil".

I purchased my PA0RDT Miniwhip(s) direct from the designer Roeloff after reading about it on the merseyradar website. It is extremely well put together and the cost is insignificantly different from all the myriad clones. Also I can confirm from direct experience that Roeloff provides a great back up too.

I have it installed just above the top of a 1.5 metre glass fibre mast, about one metre above the ridge line at the rear of my house, so it must be about 8-9 metres AGL. I installed triple cascaded FT140 chokes of 31, 43 and 77 mixes directly at the antenna's feedpoint, and I sometimes use it with a duplicate triple choke array at the shack end too. My logic there is that with the Miniwhip being so broadbanded, I can throttle all the unwanted SW signals bring picked up on the braid if the coaxial is indeed the main source of the signals as many claim. More significantly I have never "grounded" the coaxial feed to the Miniwhip under any scenario- any "ground" it benefits from is by virtue of the coaxial braided screen back to the shack. Basically, I have eschewed the suggested installation instructions and it shouldn't really work. I use it primarily to listen to SAQ on 17.2 kHz.

If I kill the DC supply to the antenna, all the signal including noise disappears. Similarly if I switch off the Datong LF converter everything disappears. I can say that for SAQ on 17.2 kHz it works very well for me. I have used one at a remote and pleasingly very low noise level location in a valley surrounded by a 600 metre skyline on a couple of occasions, mounted atop a 5 metre roach pole all off grid (again- no "ground") and I received an extremely strong signal from SAQ both times.

According to the way I have been using it (no "ground" and a heavily choked feeder) and taking into account the various well qualified internet naysayers, it should not work, but it does. Would I buy it again? I already have done- that's how I take it to the remote location without having to climb onto my roof to take the original one down.

From my unrepresentative sample of two, I have no hesitation in recommending the Miniwhip provided you go into it with both eyes open and manage your expectations accordingly, but as usual your circumstances will inevitably be different from my own and your mileage may well indeed vary.
M0NYW Rating: 2023-09-17
Excellent Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I purchased a 2nd hand version of the PA0RDT mini whip that didn't come with instructions so initially put this ontop of a 4ft PVC pipe above my garage roof with about 10ft of RG-58 as a quick test. It worked but wasn't great. So after few weeks I found the manual online and once I followed Roelof instructions WOW what a differeance!

I now have it at the far end of my garden only 2mtrs above ground with approx 45feet of RG-58 with an earth rod and works extremely well on LF/MF. My local NDB was just readable on my AOR AR8000 when it was first mounted on the garage, now I've relocated the mini whip and followed the instructions the NBD sounds loud and clear.

Radio 4 on 198KHz with a 40ft long wire antenna was a noisy S8. With the PA0RDT mini whip a clear S9+20.

Performance on HF is good aswel!

Don't buy the chinese or other versions as I've seen so many bad reviews. Go to Roelof directly and you will be pleased with the results for such a compact RX antenna.