PA0RDT antenna (Mini-Whip)

Information about the antenna

The PA0RDT antenna is a very small antenna for the case you aren't allowed or able to put a long wire antenna up in the air. It's made of some electronic components for a few bucks and a copper plate. The size of that copper plate ist about 80mm x 32mm. So it's very small.

Potential of such a small antenna

Since I'm SWL for many years I'm always looking for several types of antennas. So I found the Mini-Whip on the internet. What is this small antenna able to? And what frequencies is it able to receive? Well, I tried a lot with it. So I can say that this antenna should be able to receive from 10kHz to 21MHz. So you can receive 77kHz or 60kHz time signals just as the stations on the 15m ham radio band. If you'e using software like WSPR it's possible to catch stations >16.000 km away from you :) Sometimes it seems that the antenna is doing it's job on 10m band, also. Only for strong stations, maybe. 

What do you need

0. this document:  www.radiopassioni.it/pdf/pa0rdt-Mini-Whip.PDF
1. copper plate
2. a 12 V power supply > 100mA
3. some m of RG58 or similar antenna cable (50 ohm)
4. a place where you can put the antenna on - the higher the better
5. PVC pipe or similar case
6. electronical parts - resitors etc.

Price

It's very cheap. You have to pay about 10,00 € to 20,00 € depending on what parts you have at home. Like PVC pipe or resitors etc.

After soldering

It can look like this

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/18/pa0rdt.jpg/

or like this

http://people.physics.anu.edu.au/~dxt103/136/ant.html

It's up to you :)

So put your diy PA0RDT on your receiver and have some fun with it.

Written by DLBB