Simple Active Antenna

 I found an article for a simple active antenna in the February 1989 issue of Monitoring Times, pages 96 and 97:  

https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Monitoring-TImes/1980s/Monitoring-Times-1989-02.pdf

The article is by Ken Cornell, W2IMB, known for the book: The Low and Medium Frequency Radio Scrapbook.

The idea is to get the antenna out of the house away from all the sources of buzzing and interference.  The thing I like about this design is that it's simple and the parts are still fairly easy to get:

Since this is a receive only antenna, power can be supplied to the remote amplifier via a simple circuit rather than some exotic Bias-T circuit:

There are popular active antenna designs from PA0RDT and PA3FWM on the internet but these employ more exotic parts, use more power and just seem fussy.  I'm sure they perform well but I'm not keen on trying them.

http://dl1dbc.net/SAQ/Mwhip/Article_pa0rdt-Mini-Whip_English.pdf

http://www.pa3fwm.nl/projects/miniwhip/

I will try to round up the parts and try the W2IMB circuit out in the near future.  Not sure if I have any neon bulbs or not but apparently they are still available from Mouser.  This should be fun.

Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm