Someone told me that there is also a transistorized version of the power antenna. I see the tube version of the power antenna on Patreon, but no transistor version. If there isn’t, there really should be, since it would be very much cheaper to build. That high voltage supply for the tube circuit is not cheap.
@Jomogunne: as it stands MCL did not release any transistorized version of the “tube power antenna” but chances are he probably will @ some point but… nobody knows when or if.
Now, having said that if you only need to improve reception to an old radio that suffers from low sensitivity IE: an all American 5 radio or similar there is another little project that you can fetch in literally minutes and it will surely give you the same kind of results (“massively improved radio reception).
So what I’m talking about here is a “tiny” transistorized RF antenna preamplifier that would most definitely make a “massive difference in reception” and you can even build it as a permanent addon to your radio as dead bug style construction of on a little PCB or on a perforated PCB for that matter. So you literally fit it inside radio (permanently).
Should you need another one for another radio after that, well….you just simply build another one in minutes and so on.
MCL has published such a RF preamplifier circuit on Patreon site (quite some time ago).
Look for Video 63 named: “Sharing Another Neat Circuit, The Super Simple RF Pre-amplifier That Works Great”. All you need to know is in that video including the compatibility, a nice demonstration etc.
It should “in theory” give you pretty much the same results and is quicker and super simple to build as well. But the most important advantage of all is the cost that is literally “pennies”.
I’ve built it myself (as a permanent addon) in many old radios, tube based, as well as solid state based radios and it works very well.
Being such a tiny circuit, you can have it fitted anywhere inside an old radio really. A highly recommended circuit. You’ll be surprised.