Best Wideband Antenna for SDRPlay

[SDRrules]

I am just getting into SDR and since the SDRPlay has only one antenna socket I am looking at a wideband base antenna instead of multiple antennas going into a combiner or coax switch. Anybody familiar with the AOR SA7000 and the NTi GA3005? The AOR is cheaper and has more surface as opposed to the expensive NTi which has a really short whip so I am wondering how the NTi could capture HF signals with such a short whip. Thanks in advance.

 

[prcguy]

The AOR works ok for its size, there is a 6ft whip with a very high ratio transformer to match the many thousand ohm impedance of the short HF whip to 50 ohms, then it feeds the low frequency side of a diplexer. The UHF/VHF side is a resonant whip with various loading coils that feeds the high frequency side of the diplexer. On HF it works ok for its size and better than trying to use a VHF/UHF Discone on HF. I've never spent much time on VHF/UHF with one so I can't comment on that part.

The AOR is popular for broadcast stations as a receive antenna for picking up EAS transmissions that they incorporate into their radio or TV broadcast. These transmissions are picked up on AM broadcast, FM broadcast or VHF weather channels by the broadcasters and its odd that the AOR antenna really only works on the AM broadcast side. Its not resonant and doesn't work that well receiving FM broadcast or 162MHz weather channels but they buy the AORs like crazy.

On the GA3005, that's an amplified very short whip which would be an E-field antenna for VLF/HF and I'm not sure how they are dealing with separating HF from VHF/UHF as the HF side needs a very high impedance input amplifier and the VHF/UHF side needs a low impedance input amp. You can get reasonable VLF/HF performance from a very small amplified E-field antenna done properly, but a preamp is not a replacement for a larger tuned VHF/UHF antenna. In my experience a rubber duck stuck on a preamp doesn't buy you much for VHF/UHF reception. It seems really expensive to me for what you get.

I am just getting into SDR and since the SDRPlay has only one antenna socket I am looking at a wideband base antenna instead of multiple antennas going into a combiner or coax switch. Anybody familiar with the AOR SA7000 and the NTi GA3005? The AOR is cheaper and has more surface as opposed to the expensive NTi which has a really short whip so I am wondering how the NTi could capture HF signals with such a short whip. Thanks in advance.

 

[SDRrules]

The AOR works ok for its size, there is a 6ft whip with a very high ratio transformer to match the many thousand ohm impedance of the short HF whip to 50 ohms, then it feeds the low frequency side of a diplexer. The UHF/VHF side is a resonant whip with various loading coils that feeds the high frequency side of the diplexer. On HF it works ok for its size and better than trying to use a VHF/UHF Discone on HF. I've never spent much time on VHF/UHF with one so I can't comment on that part.

The AOR is popular for broadcast stations as a receive antenna for picking up EAS transmissions that they incorporate into their radio or TV broadcast. These transmissions are picked up on AM broadcast, FM broadcast or VHF weather channels by the broadcasters and its odd that the AOR antenna really only works on the AM broadcast side. Its not resonant and doesn't work that well receiving FM broadcast or 162MHz weather channels but they buy the AORs like crazy.

On the GA3005, that's an amplified very short whip which would be an E-field antenna for VLF/HF and I'm not sure how they are dealing with separating HF from VHF/UHF as the HF side needs a very high impedance input amplifier and the VHF/UHF side needs a low impedance input amp. You can get reasonable VLF/HF performance from a very small amplified E-field antenna done properly, but a preamp is not a replacement for a larger tuned VHF/UHF antenna. In my experience a rubber duck stuck on a preamp doesn't buy you much for VHF/UHF reception. It seems really expensive to me for what you get.

Thanks. I had already ruled out the AOR because of the 500 MHz and above reception problem the SO239 connector would reportedly present. The NTi is just way too expensive for me to justify buying that.