Review on 📻 Fafeicy Mini-Whip Active Antenna with SMA Female Connector - Shortwave Active Antenna for Enhanced Mf/Hf/VHF Radio Reception by Genene Locson

TL:DR: If your antenna shaft is metal, ground it very well! Also, ground the shield of your coaxial cable just past the point where it breaks from the pole with a large copper wire and a long *special* grounding rod. This will get rid of so much noise and your SNR will skyrocket! The full story: When I received this antenna, I sealed it in 1-3/4" PVC with end caps and placed it on an aluminum pole that I bolted to my wooden fence post. The tip of my PVC mini whip tube is about 22 feet in the air and attached to an aluminum pole with multiple zips.I use a Smart3 RTL dongle from Nooelec and their little Ham-it-Up mini upconverter for listening to treble.I use LMR-400 coax for my mini whip /SDR (got it for free) and I have a lightning rod in line with my coax about 10 ft. At the bottom of my antenna stand with #6 copper wire going to a special 8ft ground rod under the rod , which grounds the coax shield and also prevents strikes from entering my house through the center conductor., because my old whip was damaged and destroyed about a month ago, so I got this one.Just the sparks track was damaged! Chokes on all my USB cables going to my SDR and boost converter and a large clamp ferrite choke on the 12v bias tee injector power supply. I also have a common mode choke just before the coax enters my boost converter. However, despite all these precautions, I was still getting what looked like power line/switching power supply noise on all of the shortwave that I couldn't get rid of. with this antenna. Then I realized: the large aluminum rod to which the mini whip was attached was not grounded! It basically acted like a giant static magnet right next to my mini whip. So I took a piece of #6 copper wire, stuck it deep in the ground, and as soon as I touched it to the antenna rod, almost all of the noise was gone instantly! The hundreds of false, annoying signals that plagued my receiver every night are now a thing of the past. It is assumed to be connected to the supply line. But now I understand, especially since the coax cable is attached to the very bottom of the rack, it basically acts as part of the counterbalance, just like the mini-whip uses the screen. So if you get a lot of noise with this antenna, ground the coax shield very well before it enters your house, make sure all your USB/power cables are well attenuated in the SDR signal path with the right ferrite beads/toroids , and Ground your antenna mast if it's metal! This antenna is great for HF if you give it everything you need to make it work as intended!