Dressler - deaf as a fence post

[oceans777]

Have been trying to get any performance at all out of a new Dressler ARA 100 HDX
active antenna for a few days now.
Advertised to cover 40 KHz to 100 MHz with the expensive HDX model specifically for
urban areas with high ambient RF or close tower proximity, nothing we can do
will coax anything out of it.
It is worthless on all of HF and can't even pick up the California Highway Patrol on 42.xx
that our Unidens easily pull in with the rubber ducks.

Tried roof mounting, ground, dozens of locations where even a simple wire on HF gets good results - the Dressler is equally lousy no matter where it is. Nothing makes any difference.

We checked the power outputs and cable obviously and tried with several receivers that
are working perfectly with all other antennas. Adjusted the gain on the Dressler to no end.

No wonder the only US distributor is on eBay. Interesting that the power supply has
a bad homemade typed label stuck sideways onto it and the Dressler antenna label
states "40 KHz to 60 MHz" while the xeroxed 'manual' claims 40 KHz to 100 MHz.

The preamp (RSM2000) shows "DC supply 250 mA max" but the AC adapter outputs
12 vdc 1000ma. And the suspicious looking "ARA 100 HDX" label stuck on completely
crooked and peeling off tops it off.

Unless it is completely defective in the antenna pre-amp it's easily the most useless piece of equipment I've seen yet - you can easily get better signal out of anything than this (and
for far less than $600)
any band or frequency.

 

[ka3jjz]

Did you write Dressler? Their webpage shows they do have a technical support page. For that kind of money (overpriced, probably) you can and should be able to get some questions answered.

Dressler usually puts out very high quality gear - I'd be very surprised if anything they produced is a dud. On what kind of receiver(s) are you using this antenna? 73s Mike

 

[oceans777]

I emailed and am going to call the "BP Tech" US distributor listed on the manual tomorrow
before sending it back.

Dressler being high-quality is what I have always heard - thus my concern over the
badly stuck-on homebrew labels, spec discrepancies. The "ARA 100 HDX" label
stuck on crooked and peeling doesn't fit with the Dressler reputation but I bought it
from a US radio shop that is well known and no doubts about thier legitimacy.

Tried it with an Icom IC-R8500, IC-R20 and an IC-R75. All work fine with other
antennas and all get far better signal with just a 3' wire than anything from the Dressler.

At best we can barely get the 15 KHz time signal midday on the Dressler, set to full gain.
Moving the supplied coax (RG-58u) makes a bigger difference than any location of the antenna but still not enough to use. We ran it at every angle including the 90 degree
away from the mast the manual mentions. Nothing.

Not good for an antenna that claims even indoors or in a closet simply powering it and connecting it "you should immediately hear strong, clear signal across the range".
Didn't expect HF to magically defy physics with it but was looking for it to do much better
than cheap telescoping whip.

Either way I think getting it replaced will be a fiasco - but am going to check it out tomorrow. Just seems odd nobody is carrying these over here now -

Did you write Dressler? Their webpage shows they do have a technical support page. For that kind of money (overpriced, probably) you can and should be able to get some questions answered.

Dressler usually puts out very high quality gear - I'd be very surprised if anything they produced is a dud. On what kind of receiver(s) are you using this antenna? 73s Mike

 

[oceans777]

oops

I meant 15 MHz time signal obviously..

 

[SIMON11]

It doesn't look much for $600.00$ There must be a large profit margin in these.

 

[MacombMonitor]

It doesn't look much for $600.00$ There must be a large profit margin in these.

It boils down to a small preamp, and a piece of wire, inside a plastic water pipe. :roll:

Cost to manufacture is probably about $10.00. Cost of marketing hype...priceless!

 

[oceans777]

Dressler USA response - great!

Contacted Dressler (BP Tec) here in the US and they were fantastic. They think the
unit should indeed perform much better and are shipping a replacement they have pre-tested
today along with a pre-paid return box for the current one.

The power supply is apparently added to US models because of the mfg in Germany and they were very surprised to hear of the many issues with this particular antenna - said they could not recall when they had a new unit arrive with a blown fuse and other issues.

Either way they are clearly eager to stand behind the product and going the distance
to make sure it is not a hassle to resolve, which makes a big difference to me.

Will see how the new unit does and update this when it arrives -

 

[oceans777]

It doesn't look much for $600.00$ There must be a large profit margin in these.

Could well be - it was our 'final solution' for use in a heavy RF urban area where no other
in a series of antennas has been able to deal with strong rf towers. Still they did better than this by far.

We used a different Dressler model (ARA 60 I think) a few years back on HF on the east coast and various locations in Europe. Were amazed at it's performance. It was directly from Dressler though and arrived in much better shape - as plug and listen as you can get. Hauled it around in rough conditons and all weather use with no problems.

I was more concerned the ARA 100 HDX was some modified illegit version but with Dressler
replacing it we feel much better.

 

[BPT]

Dressler ARA antennas

This message is to all Dressler antenna customers!

I have been selling Dressler antennas in the USA for over a decade and by definition do not have any dissatisfied customers. That is at least that I am aware of! The Dressler ARA antennas are excellent products and we stand behind them all. Please contact me with any questions or issues that you have or have had with them. I want to know because that is the only way we can improve the product.

Information on the Dressler antennas can be found at info@bptec.com. This includes specifications and the installation manual that is considered by most as having reasonably good technical and troubleshooting sections.

I am new to Radio Reference.com and do not want to turn this into a sales promo. We are genuinely interested in hearing from the user communities regarding the likes, dislikes and what features could be added to make the Dressler antennas even better.

Please cont tact me directly!

Lowell Beezley
info@bptec.com
73's
KB6RWX

 

[Turbo68]

I use the Dressler-ARA2000LL on my Icom-R9500 and its fed through a Stridsberg-MCA204M 4 way does an excellent job on vhf/uhf and never had a problem with it & highly recomended

Regards Lino.

 

[BPT]

Good News!

carmelof this is how we like it!

We are here if you have any questions or ideas about how to make it better and more fun!

Lowell Beezley
info@bptec.com
73's
KB6RWX

 

[af5rn]

Okay, I just gotta know what kind of radio you bought a $700 dollar antenna for!

I'll be the first to say that antenna makes all the difference, more so than the radio, but dude... $700 dollars? You better be making money off of that monitoring! :lol:

 

[BPT]

Hello af5rn

That all depends.....

A Hi-Fi enthusiast understands why he wants to spend as much for the speakers as he will for the amplifier that he plans to buy. A radio enthusiast will do what makes sense for similar reasons. The Dressler antennas are not designed to be an end all answer for every listener. They are designed to provide a very respectable level of performance in one relatively small package.

They make a nice solution for some that want to have a backup for there larger discone or maybe the owner likes to head off to a cabin or a mountaintop for a quiet weekend. We have customers that take them on cruises! Some listeners can't have antennas on their roof so a small "stealthy" product is ideal. They are easy to hide and will work very well even in the attic!

Granted active antennas do not have the capture area of a full sized antenna, but a good quality product will hold its own in a head's up! The quality of the preamp is very important. A poor quality preamp will saturate and produce intermod signals that the receiver thinks are real. It is very disappointing to hear the same signal at several different frequencies, which by the way can still happen with an un-amplified full sized antenna!

As for cost, you would be amazed how much effort went into the design of the antenna element in the HDX 2000! I wished that a piece of wire would have worked!


Lowell Beezley
info@bptec.com
73's
KB6RWX

 

[Turbo68]

Thats exactly right Lowell because i am also into i hi end audio and i think a lot of people do not understand that they get what they pay for and by the way i do have antennas from Polar & Rfi in australia and they are very expensive and they also supply there antennas to the us military and a lot of other counties worlwide.

Regards Lino (Cranbourne East Australia)
ALINCO-DJX2000
2 AOR-3000A/AOR-8200MK3
ETON-E5 HF PORTABLE
GRE-PSR500
ICOM-R3/ICOM-R5/ICOM-R20/ICOM-PCR1000/ICOM-PCR1500/ICOM-R2500/ICOM-R9500
ICOM-92AD DSTAR
JRC NRD-545
RADIO SHACK-PRO97
REALISTIC-PRO2035
UNIDEN-245/UNIDEN-396/UNIDEN-780/UNIDEN-996
YAESU-VX7R/YAESU-FT8800R/YAESU-VR500/YAESU-VR5000

 

[digitalanalog]

Ok, here are the specs from the eBay site on this antenna

eBay link -> http://cgi.ebay.com/Dressler-ARA-10...ryZ15051QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
PDF->http://www.bptec.com/pdf/ARA Datasheet.pdf

Dressler ARA HDX 100 Active Receiving Antenna



40 kHz – 100 MHz High Dynamic Range Model for urban locations. For Base and Mobile, Land and Maritime (Useable through the FM broadcast band)



Applications:


VLF and HF Shortwave listening

Scanners, Monitoring

Commercial Communications



ARA HDX 100 Technical Specifications:



Type: Omni-directional whip

Polarization: Vertical (may be mounted horizontally)

Whip material: Fiberglass

Frequency: 40 kHz - 100 MHz
Gain: 7.5 – 9.5 dB
3rd order IP3: +55 dBm
Noise Figure 4 – 6 dB
DC Power Supply: 12.5V @ 200 ma (included)
Coax/Connectors: 40' RG - 58U, Type N(F)/BNC (M) with PL-259 adapter

The coax is connectorized at antenna base



Please see our website www.bptec.com for additional detailed information. A technical data sheet and the installation manual are available in .pdf format.





Description:



Dressler ARA "Active Receiving Antenna" products are an excellent investment for your shortwave listening pleasure. Our customers routinely tell us that they consider them to be the best commercially available "active" antenna product on the market. The ARA antennas are small, light and very easy to install. Even indoors, they provide excellent performance across their entire band ranges without any tuning. The ARA 60 compares favorably with long wire antennas in terms of signal strength. In addition, the ARA products are "Electrically Short" and offer the advantage of receiving a lower level of disturbances due to electrostatic discharge and other man made (QRM) noise. The ARA low profile also offers wind resistance to 100 MPH, when mounted on a suitable structure.



All standard ARA models provide about 7-15 dB of gain (depending on the model) and low noise figures which can enhance the sensitivity of most shortwave receivers. LMR-240 (Ultra-Flex) low loss cable is now included as “standard” with all ARA UHF products.



The low loss cable typically increases signal sensitivity by about 6 dB* as compared to using standard RG-58/U cable. Low loss cable is not normally desired with the ARA 100 HDX, however it is available. Contact us at Info@bptec.com for details or answers to any other questions.



The HDX models are designed to withstand a higher level of ambient signal level and are best suite for urban locations with high ambient RF levels or any other site in close proximity to high power broadcast or other communication transmission services. All UHF HDX models are supplied with the LMR-240 low loss cable.



Dressler ARA products offer several models, all designed to provide you with the best possible reception in two basic frequency ranges, 40 kHz - 60 MHz (100 MHz with the HDX 100) and 50 MHz - 2000 MHz. A mast-mounted preamplifier (EWPA 5200) is offered for those using "Discone" or high gain antenna types for special applications. All ARA products are connected in the same manner, using the same basic power supply and cabling components. This product is temporarily unavailable.



The ARA products are designed to operate with telecommunication receivers and wideband scanner receivers with coaxial antenna inputs. Portable receivers with the internal telescopic or loop antennas are difficult to connect to the ARA products and may not offer the level of performance associated with the ARA product name.



*Based on loss factors for a 40’ length of coax at 2 GHz.

LMR-240 - 4.6 dB

RG-58 - 11 dB

You can't tell me this antenna is worth $700.00 dollars, infact if you click the link inbedded in the eBay auction, and check the PDF file(shown above), it's listed for $549.95.

Sorry folk's, i do not see this being worth $700.00 or $550.00 antenna considering
you can get very similar results from a plain piece of coax cut to the proper length(rx more then tx).
amplified or not, just seems very unrealistic of a cost, But then again....Maybe I'm Wrong.

 

[BPT]

Freedom of choice

Radio Reference Readers:

Opinions are one of the things that makes radio the grand hobby that it has become. The right to express those opinions is one of the things that makes America a great Country!

I completely agree that active antennas and preamplifiers are not for everybody and they will not make or break the performance of a shortwave or VHF monitoring station. Just as there are a multitude of antenna designs for different applications, so there are active antennas. As for their value, that can be a somewhat subjective matter.

Active antennas are often misunderstood. I have been looking for a platform to publish technical and applications information that would be more accessible than my website. I will start publishing information in the Radio Reference Wiki area relating to some of the more interesting topics surrounding receiving antennas and their relationship to receivers and your listening pleasure.

There are specific reasons for the recent price increases in the antenna products shown in my eBay store and I will explain more in time. For the time being, I will offer the items at the original prices to Radio Reference members. Please contact me at info@bptec.com.

I apologize for this business intrusion into your technical forum and I hope that in time you will all feel that my technical contributions will justify this commentary!

Lowell Beezley