It's not clear that a preamp will improve your reception. The 2720H has a pretty sensitive receiver. The preamp will help you if the noise figure of the preamp is better than the noise figure of your radio. It's not clear to me that you can make much of an improvement here.
I have a preamp on the masthead at home, but I have a long feedline from my receiver to the antenna, I have about 7db of loss from the antenna to the radio at 70cm and I get a noticeable improvement with a preamp. The main job of my preamp is to overcome the loss of the feedline, otherwise the preamp is not that much better than the radio.
jeff AD6EO
Kent R. Frazier wrote:
Hi all,
I am really enjoying the satellite aspect of the hobby and have enjoyed the contacts I have made with my Icom IC-2720H with a 19" whip antenna from my vehicle. I have seen talk recently of using a preamp to improve the reception. From what I've read and understand, it appears that a "switching" preamp is needed for a setup using only one antenna for Tx and Rx such as mine. Is this correct?
It also appears that most of the preamps are mast mounted. Since this would not be an option for me can the preamp be put near the transceiver? Are there any issues that result of doing so?
Lastly, what preamp(s) would you recommend for an application such as mine?
Thanks,
Kent