Broadband Preamp Kit

Purdhased this amplifier as a preamp to my frequency counter. This kit allows my counter to display frequencies that are of the low level. The reason I gave it a 4 star is that the kit requires you to solder a surface mount resistor. It can be a challange if you have never worked with surface mount components.

This took about a half hour to build the SMA was a little tricky I use this on 160 meter receive only antenna works good

Did nothing. In fact, it made the signal less readable. Bummer.

Well to answer the question as to whether the SA7 is any good you have to ask yourself what you want from a preamp? The SA7 is ONLY capable of compensating for loss of signal between your antenna and receiver. Only if you put the SA7 in a long feed line at the antenna will you see any improvement. Plugging this in at the receiver will do nothing or worse, attenuate(weaken) the signal. It will not turn your antenna into an active antenna. If you want an increase of signal and more selectivity pay a lot of money for a bigger, better, higher and maybe even directional antenna and more expensive feed line(coax).I have also had one of these on my Oscilloscope and signal generator. It gave about 0.05µVolt increase at 20Mhz which does not constitute a +20db increase, more like +4-6db. It is also hampered by nulls about 10, spread out more or less evenly up and down the frequency coverage.So in conclusion, If your want more, better defined and stronger signals. Don't buy a Ramsey SA7. Buy a better antenna and feed line.

fun kit but technology has puy this one in the past

I purchased this kit locally at an electronics hobby store to use with my "All-American Five" 5-tube radio. The early tube radios need a really long antenna OR an RF pre-amp like this one. The radio now picks up three strong stations instead of only one before, and eight weak stations instead of only three before. That's using an indoor 35' L-shaped long-wire antenna. I used a 9-volt battery for the pre-amps' power source (you will need to supply your own battery connector). You can use up to 15 volts.Note: You will have to solder one tiny surface mount resistor measuring 1x2 mm or so on the back side. That's the only real challenge in the kit, but with care, tweezers, and a clean iron you can do it. They will send you another resistor free if you botch it. You MUST have some means of securing the tiny 1" x 1.5" PC board while you are working on it.Curiously, there are no mounting holes on the PC board, so if you wish to mount it in a box you will have to devise some means of suspending it in midair from it's input, output, and power leads.The kit requires about 90 minutes if you take your time.

ok

I used this preamp with a tuned vertical, and a homebrew tuned loop for 160m reception. I mounted the preamp inside my MFJ-1025 Noise Canceller, on the Auxilliary input to provide additional gain on 160m. I also put a circuit in front of it to short the input to ground while transmitting to protect the device and the MFJ.It greatly improved the performance of the noise canceller to have the added gain on the sense antenna.It also improved the performance of my loop, which is only 2m in diameter.Really easy to build, and great value for the money.