rx pre-amp

W5XZ - dan

it sure is nice to have a pre amp available on the low bands, with low gain, directional receiving antennas...one more external box i can get rid of...

Tim - W4TME

They are nice to have, but if you use them on the low bands it will degrade the SNR. Unless you are in a very quiet location (and most of us are not), you should only need to add RF preamp gain on 12 10 and 6m. Refer to this Community post by Gerald. http://community.flexradio.com/flexradio/topics/when_do_i_need_to_use_the_flex_6000_rf_preamp

K1UO Larry

indeed...without a good preamp..many of the RX only antennas just wouldnt play on the lowbands or anywhere else. Since I know Dan is an avid Lowbander and gives a good endorsement to the internal preamp of the Flex (must have very low self generated noise?) I was happy to see his post.

Al K0VM

I have used the 6500 enough by now to know that with an efficient antenna, the preamp is rarely necessary, However, with an inefficient antenna it is more likely that using the preamp would be benificial.. An inefficient antenna likely means that the inefficiency is also applied to the potentially overloading signals as well as the desired signals. ( and, of course, to the transmit signal ). Two cents worth. AL, K0VM