MW stick vs. Half Sloper antenna receiving test by Petr, OK1RP - part I.

Hello,

when I spoke to several DXers about the Mini Whip stick all of them said "uhh, Petr if You are interesting in serious operation on TB then forget it and focus on good RX loops or so".

I do not like to evaluate or reprobate anything (specially antennas) without testing it first and mainly You never know which antenna and when will help you to hear weak signals on the TB so...I have this stick now and there is comparison with TX antenna > based coil loaded 11m high half sloper (see preview article about it)...

10/11/2010
22:45 160m W1MK S6/sloper S5/MW (better s/n on MW)
22:53 160m N3IR S3/sloper S2/MW (better s/n on MW)
23:20 160m VE1ZZ S5/sloper S4/MW (the same readability)
23:20 160m 9K2YM S6/sloper S5/MW (the same readability)
23:30 160m W8FJ S5/sloper S5/MW (better s/n on MW)
23:33 160m K1VW S4/sloper S4/MW (better s/n on MW)
23:35 160m TK5IH S6/sloper S5/MW (similar readability)

My personal feeling > in most cases the signal levels from MW were lower but quieter. The s/n ratio was definitely better on MW although the differences was not big sometime. Only in one case (TK5IH) I though that reception is better on Half Sloper because of stronger signal. 

The Mini Whip stick was mounted inside of the house in the attic just 50 cm bellow the ridge of the roof. Feed-line about 10m of the 50 Ohms cable down to the radio-room. Half Sloper is mounted about 5m far from the MW using the pipes into the total height of 11m where the base coil and sloped wire is mounted. Feed-line is 27m of cable going down to radio-room. No radials yet just copper strap going along the pipes down to ground where it's connected to grounding point.
The distance between both antennas is no more then 5m.

Used radio Elecraft K3 where Notch 900 Hz masking used, AGC off, AF gain at 11 o'clock, RF gain at 12:30 o'clock, DSP BW 150 Hz (200 Hz IF Inrad).

Of course there is no doubt that this stick is not comparable to full size Beverages or full size RX loops like Delta, K9AY or even Hi-Z phased verticals array but be noted that we are looking for "makeshift" solution compare to noisy TX antennas !

Interesting results...isn't it? What do You think about it?

More information You can find here: PA0RDT or here G3GRO

73 - Petr, OK1RP
.../-.-