Dressler ARA-1500 Antennas

[NE9N]

I just purchased one of these antennas for use with my uniden BC-890 scanner. was it a good investment?? Do these antennas work as well as the "hype" says they do??? Is anybody else using one of these antennas??? De Dave M. (NE9N)

 

[iMONITOR]

Well...there is yellow mustard, and there is Gray Poupon! You can put them both on a hot dog, and they taste similar. Gray Poupon cost much more, as it is for the houty-touty types. Your Dressler is the "Gray Poupon" of antennas, for the distinguished "Houty-Touty" listener extroidenair!

For what you get, they are way overpriced!

 

[prcguy]

I had an opportunity to test two Dressler ARA-2000s on a makeshift antenna range and was very disappointed. We used an HP Scaler Network Analyzer with a log periodic as the source antenna, calibrated with a RS Discone and replaced the Discone with the Dressler in the exact same location. I don’t have the old data handy but below about 155MHz the Discone had increasingly more gain and at 50MHz where the loaded whip on the Discone resonated, the gain went up drastically. Above about 155MHz the Dressler gain increased gradually over the Discone and by 900MHz it was something like 5dB better but my memory is a little fuzzy. We had a second Dressler that gave identical results and yes the gain control was all the way up on the Dressler power supply inserter box. Our only conclusion is the antenna element inside the Dressler is a very poor design and the pre amp can only do so much. The local Dressler rep admitted he uses a Discone himself but with a separate Dressler mast mount pre amp.
prcguy