Finally got the Active Antenna working...thanks to Mark VE3FEX suggestion to eliminate the 10K pot
and use the 1 Meg for R9 and shorting out the two non-grounded pins where the 10K pot was to go on Mark's board.
That got my antenna working!
I tried adding a whip (a 2m 1/4 wave about 52cm) to the basic PCB area antenna, but as reported by PA0RDT
in his great article (page 13), it overloaded the buffer amp and many intermod BCB stations showed up in strange places (2.5-3 MHz) on my FT-1000MP.
So with no added whip I mounted it in an ABS shell about 8in long and attached it with a hose clamp screwed into the end of
a 3ft 1inch dowel that I attached to the tower just below the rotator for my Hexxbeam antenna (fibreglass spreaders) at about 40ft.
Fed with RG-6 the run to the shack was 50ft.  So it is well above the steel roof of the shack/workshop.
Set  up to power it with 13.8VDC from the jack in the back of the FT-1000MP.
Originally using a cheap Chinese 12VDC 200mA wall-wort I got lots of hum on the signal even with toroid chokes added!
Checked the 450 mH chokes on board and they were good, so stick with linear power!
I am using a Steren 200-315 2-way video push button switch (90db isolation) (picked up for cheap at KW Supply in Stratford)
to do rapid A/B comparison with my outdoor 200ft BOG antenna facing 270 deg West.
This antenna really shines from 40m down.  Many stations clearer or louder than the BOG.
A good test was CHU on 3.330 MHz at 9PM.  Both antennas were S7, but some weak BCB intermod could be heard on the Active Antenna.
On 80m many signals were at equal strength on A/B, but less noise on Active Antenna.
Pretty impressive.
On 160m, signals were good and less noise was noticed on the Active Antenna.
Strong frying egg noise on the BOG during a light rain (from the 550kV lines east of me) were completely eliminated by the Active Antenna!
 WWV code practice at 8PM on 1.802 MHz was stronger (S9+20) on the Active Antenna (S9) than the BOG (facing wrong direction).
Western stations (Indiana and Michigan) on 1900.0 LSB were 1S unit lower on the Active Antenna than the BOG at S8.
Many other random stations were at equal strength.  No Intermod noticed on 160m.
Great!  But on CW I have noticed birdies on 1800 and every 10 kHz up to 2000 and higher....using the Active Antenna that I don't hear on the BOG.
Any ideas?
Great antenna for the BCB!  Listened to the BlackHawk game on WGN 720kHz - both antennas S-7
On the NavAids band from 200-500 kHz, several stations were copied better with the Active Antenna than the 200ft BOG.

Stations copied here near Bayfield between 4PM and 8PM:
kHz - CW call (all on AM)
202    - ZXU Thames, OH
207 - FD    Brantford, ON
221 - HM    Hamilton, ON
245 - YZE    Gore Bay, ON
257          - MB    Olste, MI
278     - ADG    Adrian, MI
283 - PT   Pelee Island, ON
317      - ZZR    Severn, ON
326         - VV    Wiarton, O
332   - PH     Bayye, MI (?)
335 - ZKF    Wellington, ON
338          - DE    Madds, MI
341     - YYU    Kasing, ON
350 -   D7    Kincardine, ON
353      - QG    Windsor, ON
362       - SB    Sudbury, ON
366 - MW    Maniwaki, ON
404                - ZR    Sarnia
375  - 7B    St. Thomas, ON
382      - XU    London, ON
If you are interested, I can send you a spreadsheet of the NavAids around the world that I found in a search....new type of DXing for me!
Hope this is useful to you all.  Will continue testing on 160m when the DX shows up.  Overall opinion......well worth building and having in the DX arsenal!

Cheers

73

Jeff  VE3CV