JIM M-75 Scanner pre-amp

[stu]

Does anyone have experience of using this? http://www.radioworld.co.uk/JIM_M-75_Scanner_preamp

Im considering getting one to use with my UBC3500xlt but some reviews ive seen suggest that these devices arent very good as they also amplify a lot of noise even though this device comes fitted with filters

[pwmonkey]

I got one here and its a good enough wee pre-amp. I use it for my Funcube dongle and its ok, noise, yes is there but I find the filtering is effective and worth having.

For this kind of money you wont expect to get stellar S/N performance, if its a big deal, improve the antenna first.

pw

[stu]

Thanks pwmonkey - do you think it gives a reasonable increase in performance?

[pwmonkey]

for sure, it makes the FCD a better animal to use, I am using it for amateur satellite work just now and its good. the filter is cutting out any VHF overspill I get no problem. I have a lot of trouble with a local D-Star node wiping out a lot of frequencies. With the adjustable gain you can give it full welly if you want but I just back it off to about +10dB and its fine. I get perfectly readable signals from SO-50 and FO-29 with little or no signal level increase. I can get more signal but if I can hear the speech at the 10dB level, no point going higher.

Just bear in mind its not a mast head amp so it wont magically give you amazing performance, you will always have the loss in the cable from antenna to deal with but I use mine a lot and the FCD would be lost without it, mind you, I am looking at a mast head amp, one of those small Vextronics kits since I only use it at UHF with a square eggbeater antenna so will be interesting to see the difference.

pw

[stu]

Excellent pw - thanks for your reply. Its been very useful.
Cheers
Stu