Looking to add a separate receive antenna or preamp to a 6300?

AE0MW

I saw this today while looking at antennas, and thought it might help out some of the 6300 users I've seen asking about separate Rx antennas and preamps.

http://www.dxengineering.com/parts/dxe-rtr-1a

From what I can tell it could be connected to the main output, but it could also be connected to the transverse output purly to protect your beverage or loop antenna from the chance of accidentally Tx output.

Anyway, I no affiliation with DXE or even experience with the product, I just saw it and though about '6300 users.

Lee - N2LEE

This brings up a question I have had since the 6300 was released and that is how many people use the transverter port ?  It would seem to be that a RX antenna port would be a whole lot more useful than a transverter port.

Now the VHF & UHF guys might disagree but why not put the transverter port on the 6500 and give the other 90% of HF operators a RX port.

Having to purchase a $170 add-on just to get a RX antenna starts to make the Flex less attractive to traditional transceiver users IMHO.

K1UO Larry

On the 6300 I use the transverter port for using my external RX antennas.  In this case it is a Pixel loop.  Everything works fine.  I use one of the key out lines to switch the Pixel preamp relay off during transmit and also feed the rg6 line from the Pixel antenna into a front end saver (from Array Solutions) as it goes into the transverter jack on the rear of the Flex6300.

Lee - N2LEE

Larry I have often wondered if this could be done. I am unclear how you prevent rf from going back down to the Pixel loop.

Are you saying you allow rf to go back down to the receive antenna but protect it by simply putting the AS-RXFEP in front of the loop ?

Lee

Andrew VK5CV

Lee,

SmartSDR lets you choose the TX antenna independent of the XVTR for RX.

Any way its unlikely that the XVTR output would be to much for any preamp.

Andrew de VK5CV

Lee - N2LEE

So antenna 1 can be TX and antenna 2 RX ?

My 6300 will not be here till the end of the week so reading the manual only gives me so much info.  If this is the case then that solves a big problem I was worried about.

Tim - W4TME

"So antenna 1 can be TX and antenna 2 RX ?"

Yes.

Lee - N2LEE

Tim you just made my day !

Tim - W4TME

Your welcome.

Lee - N2LEE

Now that I have been using the 6300 for a few weeks I wanted to revisit the RX antenna issue.

I started looking at the XVTR features and I noticed a button that says "RX Only: Enabled".
It does require you to put in an RX frequency but it doesn't seem to matter what value you enter.

Am I missing something or is the perfect answer for RX antenna for the 6300 ?

Fred-NA2U

Tim, would you please clarify.  Are you saying I can hook up my Pixel loop (which has a preamp) to Antenna 2 for RX-only and not fry the preamp?  Tnx de NA2U

Al K0VM

Yes, provided that you never select ANT 2 for transmit... The Xvrt port can also serve as an RX port and you accedently select it for TX, it is only 10mw (max) and not likely to do any damage.

AL, K0VM

Fred-NA2U

Thank you.