Reciproke or Go Broke: Why Your "Universal" Antenna Belongs in a Museum

Reciproke and Go Broke: Confessions from the Cult of Universal Antennas

It started, as most bad ideas do, with a confident OM at the club station. "You don’t need a separate receive antenna," he said, puffing his pipe like an oracle of the SWR gods. "My doublet is reciprocal, it works the same for transmit and receive. That’s physics, lad. Maxwell says so."

I nodded politely. Because what do you say to someone quoting 19th-century theory to explain 21st-century noise problems?

You say nothing. You go home. And you build something better.

The Gospel According to Rothammel

Back in the day, everything was reciprocal. That dipole in the attic? Pure magic. The 80m windom lashed between two washing line poles? Divine inspiration. But so was dial-up internet, and we moved on. Somewhere along the way, hams began treating the reciprocity principle like a holy relic—unchallengeable, unquestionable, and always correct.

But theory isn’t reality.

Reality is your neighbor’s solar inverter puking hash into the ether. Reality is every LED light bulb singing its own little death metal solo right into your IF chain. And in this reality, your so-called "reciprocal" antenna is about as effective as a tin can on a string.

When the Noise Came

I remember the night it all changed. I had just installed a shiny new SDR, expecting waterfalls of clean DX joy. Instead, I got... a brick wall of noise. Everywhere. All the time. I stared at the display like a betrayed spouse. How could my beloved resonant dipole do this to me?

It wasn’t the antenna’s fault, of course. It was doing what it was designed to do—everything. Including coupling in every drop of common-mode current from every glowing, buzzing, poorly-grounded nightmare in the neighborhood.

Redemption in the Nulls

That’s when I met her. Not a YL—something better.

A receive-only active loop. Small. Ground-isolated. Balanced. She whispered weak signals I didn’t even know were there. Suddenly, the world was full of soft-spoken CW, fluttery FT8, and—yes—DX.

I started experimenting. E-probes. Beverages. LoG arrays. Phasing systems. All RX-only. All designed with one goal: to receive well, not just to receive at all. Because let’s face it: your transmitter doesn’t care what it hears. But your receiver? It’s a diva.

The Farewell to Reciprocity

The final straw was watching my trusty doublet get destroyed in a head-to-head comparison. Same location. Same conditions. My phased BoG array left it in the dust. It was like pitting a tricycle against a Tesla.

So now, when someone starts evangelizing about reciprocity, I smile. I nod. And I quietly plug in my separate RX line with a choke so good it could exorcise demons.

Because in today’s ham radio reality:

  • TX is about watts. RX is about wisdom.
  • Reciprocity is a theory. Low noise is a practice.
  • And if you’re relying on one wire to do it all, you’re not reciprocal—you’re reckless.

Final Confession: The Myth Never Held Up

Reciprocity sounded nice in theory—like a two-for-one deal on performance. But real-world reception has never been that generous. From the first time we plugged in an isolated RX loop and saw the noise floor drop like a bad alibi, the illusion shattered.

Reciprocal antennas may still make decent transmitters. But they make lousy listeners in today’s RFI jungle. Directionality, isolation, and dedicated receive design aren’t luxuries—they're necessities.

So next time someone waves a dusty ARRL handbook and swears by one-size-fits-all wire, smile gently.

Then go back to pulling in DX they can’t even hear on your active RX receive system ;)

Got questions? Spot a heresy? Want to share your own moment of clarity? Don’t be shy—reach out. We welcome all reformed believers.

The views expressed in this article are occasionally a bit exaggerated ;), frequently sarcastic ;), and always written with a spark of humor ;). While the technical points are grounded in real-world experience, the tone is intentionally playful to challenge assumptions, provoke thought, and perhaps make the reader laugh a little.

If you recognize your setup in here — don’t worry. We’ve all been there. The goal isn’t to mock, but to move the hobby forward with a bit more clarity, a bit less noise, and a healthy dose of fun.

Serious about performance. Not always about tone.

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Written by Joeri Van Dooren, ON6URE – RF, electronics and software engineer, complex platform and antenna designer. Founder of RF.Guru. An expert in active and passive antennas, high-power RF transformers, and custom RF solutions, he has also engineered telecom and broadcast hardware, including set-top boxes, transcoders, and E1/T1 switchboards. His expertise spans high-power RF, embedded systems, digital signal processing, and complex software platforms, driving innovation in both amateur and professional communications industries.