Mini-Whip Active Antenna Kit | VLF HF Antenna for SDR Radio | PA0RDT SWL Antenna

The Mini-whip is an active antenna for the VLF and shortwave bands, the power supply could be fed through the coax with a BiasTee board.The Mini-Whip design has a frequency range of 10 kHz – 30 MHz. It is quite a cost-effective active antenna for SWL and DXers. It is a small antenna, it is very suitable for those who is difficult to have an half-wave dipole antenna for LF and HF bands, limited by space of your garden. You will need to install it up high and preferably away from the house as Mini-Whips are quite susceptible to local noise pickup. Another very important point is that Mini-Whips need to have a good ground connection.

Specification:

1. 1. Frequency Range: 10khz – 30MHz
   2. Power Suppy: 12V to 14V
   3. Working Current: 40mA @ 12V
   4. Power Consumption : 450mW @ 12V
   5. Second Order Output Intercept Point: > +74 dBm
   6. Third Order Output Intercept Point: > + 33 dBm
   7. Noise Level: < 3 dB

Some Notes on Miniwhip Antenna:

1. 1. The MiniWhip is vertically polarized.
   2. Grounding is important: if the antenna is only grounded in the shack, via the coax cable, much noise can be picked up. B.t.w., that grounding does not need to be galvanic: a large piece of metal, even if not connected directly to the earth, may have enough capacity to serve as ground.
   3. The strength of the received signal is directly proportional to the height of the antenna above ground, as long as this is small w.r.t. the wavelength.
   4. Whether the mast is conductive or not hardly matters for the reception. However, if the mast is conductive, the antenna’s plate must of course not be mounted besides but above the mast.
   5. The antenna is omni-directional, except for a dip straight up.
   6. The orientation or shape of the metal plate do not matter; b.t.w., this is also true for the whip in case of whip-based active antennas.