Any one have this pre-amp ?

[soupster]

I know it may increase my front end but it seems like a quality unit.
http://www.advancedreceiver.com/page47.html
I live in a rural area so this may not be an issue.

 

[Voyager]

I know it may increase my front end but it seems like a quality unit.
http://www.advancedreceiver.com/page47.html
I live in a rural area so this may not be an issue.

They have a reputation of overloading receivers and becoming overloaded themselves, but your mileage may vary. You may end up creating more intermod than anything else. That's a lot of gain.

Joe M.

 

[kb2vxa]

Hi Soupster and readers,

If you think you need a preamp you need a better receiver. In other words, if you have a good receiver you don't need a preamp. Unless your receiver is half deaf a preamp usually causes more problems than it cures.

 

[Swipesy]

While I don't have the specific preamp you are acquiring about I do have a Hamtronics preamp attached to my base 800 Mhz antenna and a GRE preamp attached to my RS 800 Rubber Duck antenna. Like you I live in the country and those preamps make all the difference in the world between hearing and not hearing distant (25 miles away) 800 Mhz digital transmissions. These preamps are hooked up to a Pro 96.

This is living proof not theory. I have not had an overload problem on the front end on high VHF either.

 

[n2pqq]

I use a Ramsey preamp.


http://www.grove-ent.com/PRE2.html


I live in the country between some mountains.

I find it is a good thing if you are away from a major city.

My antenna is a nil Jon.

Radios are a uniden 246t and a radioshack pro 2096.


Fred

 

[kb2vxa]

Hi Swipesy and all,

"This is living proof not theory. I have not had an overload problem on the front end on high VHF either."

Since you live "out in the country" I can agree with that, I have tested your "living proof" at a camp run by the Lyons in a remote area of northern NJ. My club set up a ham station for demonstration purposes and part of it operated on 2M. We were using an amplifier with a MMIC receive preamp much like the one described built in and immediately I noticed it's performance characteristics.

It was particularly useful on SSB, signals came WAY up and out of the mud BUT the only difference I noticed on FM was higher S meter readings, the speaker output was unchanged due to IF limiter action. This is why I wrote that unless the (FM) receiver is half deaf one would give no particular advantage.

Now you write about one helping BUT you're using obviously inferior antennas AND mention the 800MHz band which needs all the signal it can get. This is like comparing apples to oranges, a station not up to par to begin with opposed to one proven highly effective in portable ham service. Not to insult anyone mind you, but hams have the knowledge and experience gathered over the last 100 years lacking in the average scanner enthusiast or SWL so we try our best to impart some to those who need to learn more about effective RF communications. I hope you guys understand that if we set up portable emergency communications the way I have heard some monitoring posts described we wouldn't have the recognition we receive from public service and the government, we would be useless to the community at large.

One final note, I have built several MMIC preamps and found them quite useful in certain situations and worse than useless in others. One example is a mast mount to overcome feedline losses in VHF weak signal work (CW and SSB, not FM) where one excelled and another where all I got was overload in a shortwave receiver. The thing to remember is that 90% of the station is on the roof, I'm sure you know what that means.

I hope this settles the pro and con argument that could otherwise go on forever like the code/no code debates on ham forums. (;->)

 

[Swipesy]

kb2vxa -

First you accuse people of using inferior radios and now you accuse people of using inferior antennas. Tsk, tsk, you have no credibility when you make such uniformed statements without knowing facts of what equipment people are using.

Bottom line despite all your rhetoric. With preamp, reception. Without preamp, none. Sooooooooo regardless of your "shoot from the hip" statements about inferior equipment, preamps can and do help. Can they overload - absolutely. But the question asked was out in the country would it work and the unequivocal answer is YES.

Over and Out

 

[K3ONW]

I HAVE USED SEVERAL OF THESE PRE-AMPS AND THEY ARE TOP QUALITY.
I NORMALLY USE ONE ON MY SPECTRUM ANALYZER WHEN LOOKING FOR
MISC WEAK SIGNALS. THE 3.5DB NOISE FIGURE IS A LITTLE NOISY FOR USING IT ON A SCANNER, BUT IF THE SIGNAL IS IN THE MUD, COULD MAKE THE DIFFERENCE... GOOD LUCK

 

[RESCUE4NFD]

PreAmp

I have a GRE PreAmp which I have used for 5 years on a BC780 and if I had known that they were going to stop making the PreAmp I would have bought 4 more to use with my other 780's.I have 2 more that found on EBay and old stock at Radio Shack.