Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mario Filippi (N2HUN), who writes:
[Check out] this site I came by accidentally, small company, USA made antennas, most are OTA TV but he has a few shortwave antennas, quite reasonable. […] Also has old vintage pics. A little of this and that on the website, quite interesting company. He sells on Ebay too.
Thanks for the tip, Mario. I love supporting mom-and-pop manufacturers like Godar. It appears–based on his eBay rating–that Michael Godar has very satisfied customers and produces quality antennas.
Thanks for the tip!
The GODAR-1000 is currently on sale at musicdirect.com … 12% off site-wide plus free shipping. I’ve never seen this antenna for a lower price (under $88).
There is one single 5-star review at eham. It would be nice to have more reviews, but Keith Perron above likes his.
I’ve tested the GODAR DXR-1000 for a week now … and I have requested an RMA to return it.
The antenna seems to work for FM (I only tested on one station), but I purchased it solely for its claim to be a great shortwave antenna. I tried various potential mounting positions. I tried dozens of stations both during the day and at night. And I cannot really say the GODAR enhanced much of anything. On some occasions, it actually degraded the signal versus my portable’s telescopic whip (half the length of the GODAR).
I even tried to tune it (the instructions state a tuner is not necessary) with an AMECO TPA and the MFJ-1020c. No change.
This might be better with desktop receivers? But forget it for portables.
Godar did reply as follows…
The DXR1000 has been sold for over 6 years and have 10s,of thousands of
satisfied customers over the years.It is Godar;s best seller of all there
antenna products,
Not Familiar with this brand of powered antenna.Small antennas generally
do not work well so they add amplifiers to make up for the small
size.Amplifiers can add noise and in some cases block signals on certain
Frequencies.
Mike
Godar Tec Support
================================================
Godar would not answer direct questions about the antenna, and I concluded that this is not a company that I would patronize.
Still waiting/looking for an actual review/comparison, not a tweet.
By the time you pay s/h and an adapter + the $99.00 price the Bonito
looks to be a better choice with actual reviews. Also that company will
answer e-mails.
For the price. This antenna is not bad. I’ve had one for sometime.
I cannot find any reviews for this antenna, and I have tried several times in the past. I would like to have something like this for the roof of a townhouse, as inside is to noisy. I like made in the USA, but not ripped off in the USA.
See if they will let the SWL post review it, if not they can go pound sand.
Get an active receiving antenna for anything below 30 or 50 MHz.
There are two basic principles: electric and magnetic.
An electric antenna like the PA0RDT mini whip is quite tiny and very wide-band. There are models that work well from below 100 kHz to beyond 30 MHz.
The active magnetic antennas come in two forms: selective and wide-band. The selective variant has some form of coil and a variable capacitor. Use this variant if your receiver overloads easily. But you need to retune the antenna as soon as you switch to another frequency.
The wide band variant mostly has a coil with a single winding and a low-impendance amplifier.
The electric variant can be easily built. But do not try to operate it in the house: Most noise within a house is electrostatic by nature. Mine is at the end of my garden.
I like the simplicity of a Godar type antenna that could eliminate the typical noise long wires introduce. I have the AOR loop bought when first released
years ago. But you have to re-tune, re-tune and re-tune it all the time, making it a PITA to use for band scanning. (see link)
The AOR LA320 active loop antenna has been specifically designed to provide reception when located indoors. Coverage is from 1.6 to 15 MHz with the supplied 320H and 320S loop elements. The LA320 may be rotated to achieve maximum signal strength while minimizing unwanted signals and interference.
An optional loop element 320M is available for medium wave.
http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/sw_ant/3753.html
Weird that no one can find a real review of the Godar antenna which makes me suspicious about the ads claim.
I have my doubts about “noise elimination”: The Godar antennas I looked at are passive devices. The box at the foot of these antennas might contain some form of balun, but hardly more. You know this principle form those “end-fed” antennas with an “1:9 balun” that in reality is a 1:3 un-un.
The box cannot contain a current yoke, i.e. the coax calble is part of the antenna. They could habe repaired that with a ferrit ring on the cable some meters from the antenna. But obviously they didn’t.
About tuning of a magnetic antenna: Build a mini whip as I suggested above. Install it outside and as far away from all electric devices and as free as possible. That device is tiny and very broad-band!
Or buy the Bonito version from Dennis: http://www.bonito.de/frames/en_ham_index.htm
Wow, $100 for a collapsible steel whip antenna. Is there more to it than that?
I am not so sure about Godar. I checked their page about the GODAR FM DXR-1000 and found quite some questionable descriptions:
What is “tunable”? You can change the length of the telescopic whip. I cannot see how this could provide some reasonable “selectivity” in the FM band. And FM transmissions are horizontally polarized and they sell it as a vertical antenna.
How do they weatherproof a telescopic antenna?
They sell it as a “halve-.wave” antenna. For what frequency? How does that go togehter with “multiband antenna”?
For SW and below I am missing an amplifier. Or how do they connect a high-impedance antenna to a low-impedance coax cable? And where is the counterpoise? And a common-mode choke against RFI?
Looks like snake oil to me.