Building The PA0RDT MINI WHIP Antenna ( 10kHz - 30MHz ) - Part One

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Building a mini whip antenna designed by PZ0RDT for 10kHz to 30MHz. Perfect for LW, MW and SW listening. Slightly improved for VLF-HF.
73, YO6DXE
*** WATCH PART TWO:
• Building The PA0RDT MI...
*** BLOG POST:
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*** PCB BOARDS:
Mini Whip Antenna PCB
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Mini Whip Bias-T
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*** DX EXPLORER:
DX Explorer is a channel with amateur radio related videos on: schematics, reviews, homebrewing and much more.
I am passionate about amateur radio since childhood. I got back into the hobby in 2016, while living aboard my sailboat. I received my license in 2022. I like QRP mostly, experimenting with all modes. But I am old school, so I prefer SSB or CW.
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[@dxexplorer]

The PCB Boards design for the PA0RDT Mini Whip Antenna and the Bias-T are now ready and you can order here: - Mini Whip Antenna PCB: www.pcbway.com/project/shareproject/PA0RDT_Mini_Whip_Antenna_341d333c.html - Mini Whip Bias-T: www.pcbway.com/project/shareproject/PA0RDT_Mini_Whip_Bias_T_393e782b.html

[@olivierconet7995]

Very nicely built, I am amazed 👍Impatient to see your results I tried a few variations around this design. I remarked the following : -1- it is sensitive to the quality of the grounding. Ground from the coax brings a lot of noise. It seems better to use a local ground at the base of this antenna. -2- Using a faster NPN transistor, this antenna is able to have significant gain at pretty high frequency (144 MHz or even high) -3- It is a "electrical field" antenna : it is sensitive to every electrical device in the close environment (home wiring etc...). Keep it away or high enough. Note that lightnings could destroy the FET even far away. I personnaly use diodes to protect it (that degrade the sensitivity)

[@dxexplorer]

Thank you so much Olivier. I took a screenshot of the comment to put the info in my notes. This is much help to me. I hope tomorrow I can get the rest of the stuff and finish the project and the video as well. Fingers crossed it works... if not at least I have enough time until the 13th to troubleshoot 😄. 73, YO6DXE P.S. The ground of the antenna you mean at the mini whip ? Or the power thing and put the ground over there before the coax goes to the antenna itself ?

[@olivierconet7995]

@@dxexplorer Ground : yes, it seems that the mini whip ground is important. source : WEBSDR of the University of Twente. Their mini whip is at the top of a metal roof, which serves as a reference ground.

[@dxexplorer]

@olivierconet7995 yes yes I was reading about their antenna last night after I finished posting my video )). Thank you so much. This is great help. It will make my life easier when installing it in the final location.

[@TheElectronicDilettante]

As society continues to slide into the abyss, It’s such a nice change to see people ,who are worlds apart, doing nice things for each other. Just because. You should make a wishlist of RF tech you need or just want, post it in your community section and see how many more decent people watch your channel. Thanks for the video.

[@dxexplorer]

Ohhh I don't like asking for stuff... not for me at least. I have no problem asking people to help my friend Gherman up there at the camp for example haha. I think with the stuff I received now I am good. All I need is free time to work on new projects.

[@Very_Dark_Engineer]

I used an active antenna with 15-20 dB gain for FM radio receiver, and for many years i mistakenly thought that any antenna without gain is useless. Nice and accurate build

[@dxexplorer]

Thank you so much. Well we will see once I finish this one if it will turn out to be useful or useless haha. I hope it works. 😅

[@bobi_lopataru]

The best surprise of a video, ever! edit: if the area up in Cioclovina has internet, which I assume it does somehow, you could connect the antenna to an RTL-SDR V4 and turn it into a public WebSDR, as the area could be a nice low-noise reception spot

[@dxexplorer]

Ohhh no internet there. I had no phone signal for a week that I spent there. But I like it this way also ))) Later edit haha... m internet here is not further than the missing one in Cioclovina. It's so slow that this clip was scheduled to be posted three hours ago... but with my internet speed the upload took ages ))).

[@jeremiaskotchinski2073]

Starlink is expensive, but probably available there.

[@dxexplorer]

@jeremiaskotchinski2073 It is available yes... but the man there wants to keep the place as "clean" as possible from technology so the fact that we can put some radios there is a big deal 😁.

[@youtubeaccount931]

Look forward to the builds! You live in a beautiful place. 73 take care

[@dxexplorer]

Thank you so much. Have an amazing weekend.

[@pd1jdw630]

Looking forward to your results. I had one, with the j310. And living in a moderately populated area. You can look me up where I live. I had to putt it up, up, up and away. It was about 20meters into the backyard. And 12meters up. To get away from all the electric house noises. ie wifi computer etc. So I’m curious how well it’s going to perform at your place. Very neat build. Not like my dead bug was. 😂 Have fun buddy!

[@dxexplorer]

Hahahaha... you always make me laugh with your comments 😅😅. Perfect after one more long day filming videos. I am dead tired going to bed. I am also curious how it will perform here as I will build one for me too later on... but even more curious I am about how it will perform up in the mountains at the Scouts Center where I will do the final install. It should be a quiet area as there is no wi-fi, I had no phone signal there... and is really not much to interfere with the antenna. We will see. I promised I will be back with a video about the radio room there once is finished. 73 buddy and have a fantastic and productive week.

[@pd1jdw630]

@@dxexplorer Ha! Glad I made your day a little better. I’m looking forward to the results. My dead bug did perform quite well. So my guess is, yours is going to perform much better in the mountains. Specially because it’s build much better. 😂 Have a good one. 👌🏻

[@dxexplorer]

@pd1jdw630 Hahaha... thanks buddy. I go do some shopping for the parts I need. I'll see you soon here with part two 😁

[@jozefnovak7750]

Super! Thank you very much!

[@dxexplorer]

Filming the last bits for the new video just now. I guess tomorrow I can finally post part two of this. 😁

[@F4LDT-Alain]

I always enjoy your videos, excellent contents plus a relaxed and friendly tone for competent speech, thanks! I have been considering a mini-whip for some time, if only because of the impressive way it works at U. Twente's web SDR. Looking forward to your final testing and I might order one from PCBway. Hope to work you some day, lots of QSOs from Romanian hams on the 20m band from where I am now in Brittany. Best 73s de F4LDT.

[@dxexplorer]

Thank you so much for the nice words Alain. I will make you laugh a bit too now. I think the friendly tone is because lately I am constantly tired and half asleep haha ( joking ). Talking about Britanny, you reminded me of a sailor I sailed to Cuba with back in 2018 and his boat had a funny name ( SV Wanker 😅 ). Funny guy but we didn't keep in touch. I will have a documentary on this on my photo channel sometime before Christmas. On the QSO's... I will see if I have internet when I will be up at the camp in Cioclovina and maybe we can try a QSO on 20m. I only did 3 so far one morning to test the equipment there while the kids in the camp were asleep. We keep in touch and we plan something. 73, YO6DXE and thank you for watching the videos.

[@F4LDT-Alain]

Thanks for your reply, Ciprian. I will drop you a mail on your qrz address with some information if you wish to catch me in real time to attempt a QSO.

[@dxexplorer]

@F4LDT-Alain Excellent. I think I got it I just had a notification.

[@KA4UPW]

Hahah PCP Way (your sponsor) should provide you the board!

[@dxexplorer]

They will... once I finish the design. 😁

[@MrRednhot]

I Like that you Build it as how look on the schematic. Very easy to find problem if there is A problem. insted of trying to finde A problem on A complex Print board and only having A simple Diagram. And I am Happy to hear that you get A miniVNA And L-C Tester

[@dxexplorer]

Ohhh yes I try even on the PCB board the designs to do the same. Of course is not always possible, but I try to keep it as close as possible to the way the schematic is.

[@dott.ing.antonioscalzullo7938]

ottimo, grazie

[@dxexplorer]

Grazie anche a te per aver guardato. Spero domani di avere tempo per finirlo e testarlo. 73, YO6DXE

[@SMG_Wizard]

Thank you for all your videos!

[@dxexplorer]

Thank you so much as well for watching. The only reason I still make the videos. 🙏🙏🙏 73, YO6DXE.

[@toddhowell2299]

Nice surprise. I'm looking forward to your video about the LC meter build. And of course Part Two of this build.

[@dxexplorer]

I am also very excited about the second part. So excited that I have no patience until Monday 😅😅.

[@NikiBretschneider]

I think 100nF is little bit too low. I built this antenna about 20 years ago (I believe, it's hard to remember) and it worked well, but I lost that thing due to moving from one place to another, so I decided to build it again, slightly modified, because I was completely unable to obtain original parts.The original design used 470nF capacitors and if you think about that, 100nF is too small, especially when it comes to the output of the last stage, that goes into 50Ω. I used 1μF ceramics. This antenna is well performing also on MW and LW broadcast bands and even lower, which requires that higher capacity on the output. If you don't need this feature, then it's probably OK to put a 100nF into it. The second thing I came across was the input transistor. I was unable to obtain j310, I tried j111/j112 but they did not perform well. Then I found MMBFJ310, which is, in fact, j310, but in SMT package and it was much better, but then I ran into issues with the final transistor. I was unable to obtain the original, but I ended up with a chinese S9018, that worked almost perfectly (yes, I know I push it near to its maximums, but it works). Third thing - be aware of capacitive coupling to the ground (e.g. due to proximity to something connected to ground), esp. when it comes to the input gate of that j310 as this can easily ruin the whole design. I also removed that coil between the V+ and output, imo it's much easier to power that thing through separate wire than using the output coaxial cable, but this heavily depends on where (and how) you want to install that thing. I also discovered, that that preamplifier (in fact, it's much more buffer than amplifier as it does not enlarge voltage swing, it just converts the impedance) can be easily used as the input of simple E-field near field probe. I made third instance of this thing just for that purpose, I replaced that plate connected to the gate of the input transistor with about a 5mm of thick insluated wire and it works perfectly as an active E-field probe.

[@dxexplorer]

I will reply a bit short because I have a little work to do for today still. Thank you so much. Noted all the info. I guess I will try it now with the 100nF capacitors and see how it performs... if things don't go so well then I may replace them with 1uF capacitors. I do have a few of those not polarized. On the transistors... I am also curious if the ones I have now will work. If not I still have a little time until Sept. 13th when I have to leave at the camp to make final adjustments and tests to make sure it works well. Thanks so much one more time. 73, YO6DXE P.S. The power yes I must use the coax for it as it will be a little far from the receiver hiding in the attic and I may have way too much loss in power running such a long cable for DC Power.

[@captmohelsaadany6751]

all your videos are wonderful 👍

[@dxexplorer]

Thank you. Ehhh some could be better... but I try 😁😁🙏🙏.

[@Chems7308]

Very nice , waiting for the next part

[@dxexplorer]

Thanks for watching my friend. Either on Monday or Tuesday I will be able to post it.

[@Alex-M0OOV]

Looking forward to the next one!

[@dxexplorer]

I am preparing what I need as we speak so I can make a list and do some shopping tomorrow for what's missing 😁😁. I can't wait to test it 😁. 73, YO6DXE

[@Alex-M0OOV]

@@dxexplorer Spor!

[@dxexplorer]

Multumesc ))

[@uli_6830]

I'm already looking forward to the sequel. When can we expect it? One more question: How many volts are used to feed the antenna? I am SWL and use an RSP1A from SDRplay. I would be very interested to see how the MiniWhip works with the receiver. I usually build my own antennas (e.g. MagneticLoop), but I'm a beginner when it comes to tinkering with electronics.

[@dxexplorer]

Apparently this one should be way better than a magnetic loop if build correctly. And since it's wide band there is no need to constantly tune the antenna for a particular frequency. Now I hope it also works considering that I did not exactly used the original components as they were in the schematic. The voltage... I see that anything from 9v to 15v ... but honestly I will stick to 12v as I will power it from the same power supply I use for the radios or the transceivers. I will try to finish it and do the tests today and hopefully the video too. But it is also my nephew's birthday today and tomorrow mine so we will see how i can manage 🤣🤣.

[@uli_6830]

​@@dxexplorer Thanks for the quick reply. I am looking forward to it!

[@dxexplorer]

@uli_6830 I can't wait to test it also 😁

[@ozarktreasures8044]

Nice build! Do you think that this would work as a stealth antenna on the Sputnik?

[@dxexplorer]

You mean like inside the box of the receiver ?

[@ozarktreasures8044]

@@dxexplorer No, as an alternative to a longwire outside. Would it overload the regen stage? Looking foreward to learning more about this.

[@dxexplorer]

Ahhh yes of course. It should cover ( built properly ) from 10kHz to 30MHz so for the Sputnik it would be perfect.

[@ozarktreasures8044]

@@dxexplorer Thank you for the reply. Il be waiting for the next video!

[@dxexplorer]

@ozarktreasures8044 Filming as we speak 😁😁