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Post by franco on May 19, 2021 22:58:41 GMT
I tried a 1:9 balun with the outdoor random wire today, the set up seems popular with the SWL crowd... I wasn’t impressed. Might be my location but been using an Airspy Youloop indoors to greater effect.
My next venture will be an active magnetic loop on the roof, the MLA-30 is as cheap as chips and popular.
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Jem
Viscount
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Posts: 3,390 
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Post by Jem on May 20, 2021 20:20:42 GMT
My next venture will be an active magnetic loop on the roof, the MLA-30 is as cheap as chips and popular. I'd be interested in your opinion on that Franco |
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Post by franco on May 23, 2021 9:33:50 GMT
Holding off for now Jem, not sure my missus is quite ready to see an antenna on the house... yet  I did pick up the desktop MW loop mentioned earlier in the thread though, saw a good deal on Amazon. It’s a really cool device and surprised me what you can find on MW at night, I got a few Spanish stations, French, Radio Ulster, lots of Sport chat and political debate. It reminded me of how radio used to be when i to messed around with my dads radio as a kid, got so used to listening to DAB and FM at work and home. |
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Post by franco on Jun 1, 2021 21:10:08 GMT
Bugger it, ordered the active MLA 30 loop.
Sick of messing around with other methods and achieving marginal progress. Tried grounding, a counterpoise and a balun with the random wire, pointless using the math and going quarter wave or whatever because there isn’t one meter band I particularly want.
It might not be much better but worth a gamble as they aren’t expensive.
I’ll report back on the results.
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Post by franco on Jun 4, 2021 14:15:10 GMT
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Jem
Viscount
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Posts: 3,390
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Post by Jem on Jun 4, 2021 17:47:01 GMT
Genius!
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Post by brianbutler on Jun 5, 2021 0:05:18 GMT
As long as it isn't electrified!
Brian
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Post by franco on Jun 5, 2021 17:07:48 GMT
I look for insulators first and there are no cattle up there so was quite confident it wouldn’t blow my radio up!
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Post by franco on Jun 17, 2021 20:19:18 GMT
After two weeks of using the amplified MLA-30+ I’m not convinced it’s the solution for me. It’s hugely popular in the SWL community and sure it brings in weaker signals and boosts stronger ones, but the compromise is it boosts the noise floor as well. Maybe I was expecting too much, I don’t know. By comparison the passive YouLoop is much quieter in operation but no miracle loop either. I don’t regret buying them as they weren’t expensive, between them and the random EFW I’ve got plenty of options for listening in.  0E4752A5-D7BE-48E0-A7B0-7392D94A730F by Franco_AC, on Flickr |
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Post by franco on Jul 10, 2021 9:16:07 GMT
I made the 20m/70cm Dipole with coat hangers from one of the diy videos that’s on YouTube. It works but could do with getting it high up somewhere, might try the loft as it’s obviously not waterproof.  5F907350-E980-4044-B423-6041C3AED029 by Franco_AC, on Flickr |
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Post by franco on Aug 7, 2021 22:16:51 GMT
I built a loop today but struggling to get it to resonate on Long Wave, which is the goal. Works great on MW. Might try more windings of wire or an inductor in the circuit.  BFFF65BD-8E2C-4A47-8C2C-6386DE7C5767 by Franco_AC, on Flickr |
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