Building and Connecting the DX Engineering DXE-RSEAV-1 Active Antenna

The current standard antenna selection for the PSWS HRFx is the DX Engineering Receive Short Element Active Vertical Antenna System RSEAV-1.

The DXE-RSEAV-1 Receive Short Element Active Antenna offer excellent low-noise reception from below 100 kHz to 30 MHz. The provided three-section 8.5 ft. (2.6m) aluminum tubing whip antenna connected to the associated DXE-AVA-3 Active Matching-Amplifier Unit provide significantly better weak signal reception than other active receive antennas and full-size transmit-capable antennas, with reduced noise and lower spurious signal interference.

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This antenna is intended to be mounted on, or directly adjacent to a 6’ copper ground rod (not provided) away from metal structures such as towers. *Note - If you have rocky or very dry soil, in addition to the ground rod, you should install at least (4) 15’ radials on the ground surface to provide the necessary ground plane for effective operation. Now ‘technically’ while you should use stranded copper strap from the antenna’s ground connection to the ground rod, a length of #6 THHN copper wire will suffice.

While the antenna’s amplifier box is weather-resistant, the current backplane mounted design exposes the matching-amplifier’s RG-6 ‘F-Type’ connectors to the elements. The extra step of enclosing the unit in a weatherproof enclosure ensures that both the coax and 12VDC power connections are protected from adverse weather, further insuring the dependable performance of the HFRx PSWS.

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While it allows for one cable to be used for both the RF and the DC, as HamSCI wants to study the received transmissions, we want to minimize the signal’s noise as much as possible. To do so, we will use a separate cable to supply the antenna with power.

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To make this DC/RF separation, a simple internal adjustment to the amplifier is made by moving a jumper J-3 per page 7 of the RSEAV-1 manual.

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Then, to power the antenna, connect a regulated 12VDC >1A power supply to a run of stranded #14 red/black wire and then to the AVA-3’s lower F-type female connector via an F Male Power Adapter connector. Keep in main that for a 12V DC systems, keeping the total voltage drop under 3% is generally standard practice to ensure equipment operates correctly. So 12VDC using #14 wire over a 100-foot run will result in higher than 3% voltage loss. So if your antenna power run is greater that 100’ you’ll need #12 wire gauge to mitigate that loss.

Complete assembly instructions are documented in the DXE-RSEAV-1 manual.