Has anyone used the "Original Power Tip" attachment on a radio antenna? It looks similar to the attachment on the top of antennas on military vehicles. Does this thing work or is it just another rip off?

he's right, i asked about this a while ago. it's to stop you poking your eye out.

sorry.

Absolute junk.  Don't waste your $$$ on anything like that.

They are passive meaning there is no amplification and you must obey the conservation of power law.

It is non-parabolic so it is not gathering and focusing RF energy from a large area into a aperture.

There is no D/A converters, DSP, algorithms or intelligence to repair weak signals.

The only thing that this "Power Tip" could possible do that would be beneficial is:

-Load the antenna with a inductive coil to make a vehicle's radio antenna more sensitive to UHF and VHF radio communications.

-Provide a length of antenna (or disks) in a 90-degree plane to make the antenna sensitive to both vertically and horizontally polarized signals.

That "Power Gold" device is super-cheesy bullshit in that it expects any RF energy to be "received" by it to capacitive-ly couple into the actual antenna. They have some goofy layout design in the gold traces to make people think there is some sort of science behind it.

They work great, and so do those little RF blockers to keep your brains from immediately getting fried by your cell phone. Wanna buy some?[:E]


Don't waste your money on things that seem too good to be true.

Speaking as a EE, this is a scam. Several people have already brought up great points. Antennas are tuned to specific frequencies; a "one size fits all" performance enhancer is BS. Here's something else to consider: If they really work, why don't the radio manufacturers include similar technology from the factory as part of a stock unit? They don't because it doesn't work.

You're forgetting log periodic antennas. But, even then, it would be hard to figure out where the Power Tip goes on those antennas. For those that are interested in this type of antennas, just look at the TV antennas on the roofs. These are log periodic as well. Logs are basically an array of antennas tuned to adjacent frequencies. Thus they can transmit and receive a wider range of frequencies within an acceptable SWR.

Just think about the improvement in TV reception I'd have if I put a "power tip" on each end of each element of my TV antenna. I'll bet I'd be able to pick up stations from the other side of the world. Forget line of sight limitations. Oh wait, I forgot I don't have a regular TV antenna. I have a satellite dish.  I wonder if the power tip would help that? Maybe I should order one for my tinfoil hat, too.