Reply To: Newbie Question on prepping MLA 30- antenna before RSPdx arrives

[GremlinParticipant]

Well, to be honest…

… the MLA-30+ is not worth the efford!

For my very first attempt i had no long wire so i used a simple flower tying wire(!) under the roof and just connected it to the Hi-Z Input of my RSPduo.
Well, this still is my wire antenna and from 80m to 15m it doing very well! Located at JO50ch this wired revices stations from Australia, New Sealand, Argentina (FT8).
The MLA has this little advantage it it’s directional, so broadcast stations can be seperated from each other and sometimes the magnetic loop antenna reduces
noise.
BUT: the cheap MLA-30+ overall is not a good antenna and even not very good at VLF or AM.
i bought a Whip Antenna (Bonito Boniwhip) and set it up on a 10m Fibre Pole.
thanks to the RSPduo i can compare all three antennas directly. the Whip is excellent at VLF and AM, where Wire and MLA don’t work.
in the “middle” section (80 – 15m) the difference is minor, depending on noise or daytime.
big advantage of the BoniWhip is the bandwith from 10kHz up to 300MHz (guaranteed) but it works up to 500MHz, which includes the 70cm Band.
small disadvantage: the Whip needs 12V Bias-T (injector included) and can not be powerd by the RSP.

73
Ralf