Active Bonito Boni-Whip - Active Antenna

[Scan125]

Well I've taken a little plunge into new territory - Bonito Boni-Whip - Active Antenna

My current reception setup is a long wire (coax fed) with MFJ-959C ATU for 0-30MHz Receiver and MFJ-956 Tuner/Preselector.

Both have served me well in tuning out unwanted crap. I also have "long wire balun" which I removed when I got the MFJ antenna tuners to get more selectivity and rejection..

I won't get my hands on the Boni-Whip till Christmas and it won't be used in anger till I have moved house in the new year.

After the move I'll be a little more rural with only my house and an other 2 near residences to contend with any potential interference which active antennas can have amplifying issues with.

Bonito say no tuner/matcher/pre-selector is required, but I take that with a pinch of salt.

Any info or advice would be appreciated.

Of course I will test the Boni-Whip with no in-line MFJ tuner units (as mentioned above) and come to my own conclusions etc. but additional experience and advice from other quarters is always to be respected.

Over to you all.

 

[ka3jjz]

Even tho it sounds like you won't be in an urban area, this article has some very good info on how to properly mount and ground the mini whip

How to properly install a Mini Whip antenna in an noisy urban environment

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Grayhat, who shares the following guest post: Setting up a Mini Whip antenna by Grayhat I’ve been fiddling with my “balcony antenna” experiment for quite a w…

swling.com

Mike

 

[popnokick]

Don't forget this review of the Boni-Whip -
The Bonito Boni Whip goes from strength-to-strength: hardcore DXing in compact package

 

[Scan125]

Thanks for the tips & links. I recall having read them in the past but this time I've book marked them.

Another little thing I'll need to check out will be a suitable PSU. Currently I have two analogue non switchers @ 12V. One powers my Alinco DX-R8 receiver and the other is for the MFJ-956. Now I rarely if ever use the simple signal amplifier in the MFJ-956 and I suspect this will be even more the case with the active Boni-Whip so I should have a good PSU for the Boni-Whip. Also as the MPJ-956 takes next to no power at all I could couple it to the DX-R8 PSU or run off battery. I also have a small collection of 12V 1.5A switchers (SMPS). No idea at what frequency they run and if choked up they will be quiet enough for DXing.

Fun and games to look forward to

 

[Scan125]

Just a small update in that my house move has not yet happened so the Boni-Whip is still tucked away in its box and not yet tried. Of course once moved there will be additional down time to get back to normal!

 

[BDavis27707]

I've been reading about various types of whip antennas lately. Not sure if you guys would know for sure, but is it realistic to think I could use one to pull in 198khz and 693khz BBC transmissions on the East Coast of the USA? WebSDR Twente has really spoiled me lately, so much that I don't use my SDR as much as I'd like to.

 

[ka3jjz]

Cross posting from another thread is a no-no here. 'Nuff said...Mike

 

[Scan125]

Well the house move took place and I finally found and have connected up the Boni Whip.

It works is all I can say at the moment. The noise level here in the up to 3MHz (approx) is horrendous.

I have a high voltage 6 wire main overhead power transmission line at around 150m / 200m from my house. I'm also having to run powerline LAN adaptors/extenders to connect the two main PCs to the router. So 3 of these mains units pumping away.

I've not yet established who/what is causing all the noise but I will get there. My priority has been to get non RF communications up and running. (read PCs, TVs, etc). What has not helped is that a month ago over 2km of main/trunk phone cabling was stolen thus cutting off many 1000s of landline phones. Thankfully the Fibre To The Cabinet connections were not damaged in this copper theft. That said over a month without essential phone services has had a serious knock-on effect to all the other stuff I wanted to get sorted.

Regarding the noise levels then my plan is:

1) Find a bad noisy frequency/band with either both a short wire internal or Boni Whip internal setup and the kill the router and power line adaptors. I'll use both my DX-R8 and my RSPduo and see what happens / drops off / etc. That will give me a guide as to if the bulk of noise is generated in the house or external.

2) I have some receiver antenna tuners so I may be able to dial out (rather broad freq notch filter) to see if I can find the base noise freq and it's harmonics or am I dealing with a complete spectrum splatter?

3) Grounding - Decent Ground Stake - well this should be done first but until I have a permanent antenna setup and know where everything is going/fed from/fed to .... then all I've been able to do is use local to receiver / Boni Whip grounding to water/radiator pipes and mains earth. These show a small signal increase but make no difference to the noise levels.

So plenty for me to do and I can tell you now I'm in for the long haul on this one as this hobby is taking a back seat presence with all the other new home stuff I have to get through.

 

[ka3jjz]

I think you should thoroughly read the article I linked to in post 2. I kinda doubt any tuner (which really is a misnomer) or notch is going to help if it's that broadbanded.

Vertical actives can and will be noisy, but there are some things you can do to mitigate it to some degree.

An active loop is a far better option if you are in a noisy environment. Heck, Wellbrook is almost literally in your back yard.

Mike

 

[Scan125]

Hi Mike

I did indeed read and acknowledge that. As you point out grounding at the "right" point is quite crucial. I took/take all that onboard. I think you will find that in my post 3) I address grounding but did not go into the more detailed specifics because at this point in time I've not got a defined / stable / etc. antenna setup.

All I do know is that I have a shed load of noise to sort out / address / locate so whilst test groundings, antenna tuners, notch filters, etc. may not be solutions they I hope are just tools for me to try and profile and understand where all the RF crap is coming from. The RF noise has to be understood and isolated. Then one can work out and fine tune what is required to minimise and possibly kill off the interference.

Sadly I'm not in a position to install large directional HF antenna arrays to help me in this task.

 

[ka3jjz]

An active loop is hardly big - around 1 or 2 meters in diameter. It is quite directional on freqs below 2 or 3 Mhz and is known to be more resistant to noise.

Something to consider....Mike

 

[Scan125]

An active loop is hardly big - around 1 or 2 meters in diameter. It is quite directional on freqs below 2 or 3 Mhz and is known to be more resistant to noise.

Something to consider....Mike

Yes indeed.

Being a new home but 30+ year old large bungalow which was subject of many changes/mods over the years I'm still trying to understand everything.

For example I found about 100 feet of 20+ core telephone cable just sort of bundled in one corner of the loft. I found that this was still active (well one pair was) going to the far end of the house. Worse still this was also connected to the phone/ADSL master socket. Soon cut all of that out. Also found what appear to be LAN cables all over the place but there are no LAN sockets in the house. Another mystery to solve Then there is the spaghetti wiring of the alarm system where I suspect a number of the cables are no longer used.

Once I've satisfied myself I understand and have trimmed down all unnecessary cables etc. hopefully got rid of the LAN powerline adapters then I can set to task on a permanent antenna setup.

The really odd thing is that the house is just into to country with the one not close neighbour, no street lights etc. so apart from the HV power lines I mentioned one would expect the location to be electrically quiet.

 

[Scan125]

Late / Slow follow up.

Today I powered down the mains LAN extenders and it made no real difference to my noise level floor.

So my prime suspect is the HV powerlines some 100m to 200m from me. To rule these guys in or out I'll have to somehow go mobile on HF and see if things get better.

For my testing I chose (in this case a UK) station on 693Kz with a weak signal with high level noise level. The powerline LAN extenders made no difference. Also no road lighting outside so I can rule these often offenders out.

Depending on what I find out next then maybe I'll have to go to mag loop setup which are supposed? to be more tolerant of electrical interference?

 

[n2pqq]

Yes a loop would be a good solution
Buy something like a Wellbrook or Dx engineering rf pro 1b active magnetic loop