GA-800 Active Loop Antenna for 10kHz to 159MHz With No Tuning
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 มิ.ย. 2024
- Here we take a look at the new GA-800 Active loop antenna which is perfect for SDRs and home radios. Please note on SDRuno Antenna A is the EFHW and Antenna C is the GA-800, look out for me switching between the two.
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00:00 GA-800 Introduction and Box Contents
01:59 Closer Look at the Loop
02:17 Indoor Installation
02:36 Outdoor Installation
02:48 Separating Loop From Base Unit
03:37 40M Reception Test Daytime
04:15 17M Reception Test (Look out for EFHW antenna switching)
04:53 15MHz Commercial Receive Test
04:57 5.975 MHz Receive Test
05:28 432 kHz NDB Receive Test
06:00 MW Receive Test
06:25 40M Receive Test Evening
06:49 DRM Decoding Test
07:08 80M Receive Test Evening
07:25 40M Receive Test Late Evening
07:56 20M FT8 Decoding
08:15 Summary and Conclusion
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How can we know which antenna at which moment is used in the comparison? There is no indication.
Most of the footage is using the GA-800, there are a couple of small times I switch to the EFHW. Apart from the NDB reception, all other transmissions are better received on the EFHW. You can also see top left corner where I change antenna port. But yes, I should of put a text to show. However, it was only a couple of times
@@TechMindsOfficial Yes please. Will help.
@@TechMindsOfficial Hey Matt, I know you can't go back and add it to the video, but maybe a chapter marker would help?
@Temp Thanks for the suggestions, I have just added them now. Cheers!
Loved the comment about the optional cat sniffing the antenna. 🤣
I am using this antenna with the Malahit DSP2 like you demonstrated in your other video. Best portable HF combo ever. Got the antenna for about £120. Money well spent.
Same
I ordered mine today. Love the Tech Minds TH-cam videos channel and video thanks for all your info, reviews and spotlights on new consumer products.
hi Michael and did you like the antenna?, i ask it becourse i a'm looking at it for let say 500Khz till 4 Mhz
@@Andre-xu3pq I wrote a review here. I threw it in the trash and took the loss.
@@michaelhollandsr thats not good at all. Was it a blue monday set?
hmmm maybe i get the AOR then? or do you have found something good?
Every product review needs a cat in it.
The unwritten TH-cam law.
haha.. For sure! :-)
It wanted to use it on its cat’s whisker
I like it. Will have to look into one for the shack.
Just got mine today, so far so good.
Hi After seeing your review I bought a GA-800. When it came I thought it looked very good and came with all the connectors needed.
However on connecting and powering it up I was at first slightly disappointed as it seemed somewhat insensitive at HF frequencies 7 - 18Mhz compared to my tuned passive loops about 2-3 S units down. At LF it was still quite insensitive compared to a passive ground loop
128kHz again being 1-2 S units down. The real problem was above 70Mhz were noise from the inbuilt amplifier swamped all signals.
For example at 99.8Mhz the local FM station was at 40dB above noise floor with the amp turned off and swamped by +60 dB broadband noise when turned on. The 2m Ham band was also drowned by this noise.
Now my unit may be defective, I contacted the seller with this information but so far have had no reply, or it may just be that you only had a quick look at a few HF frequencies and didn't notice the problems.
I would be interested in your view.
The instructions I have received with mine today say (in Chinglish) to turn off the amp for higher bands (FM, aviation, U/V). With SW & MW, turn the amp on.
The raw gain on this antenna should make anyone pause to buy wideband antennas such as this. Especially in urban areas, this kind of gain is more likely to overamplify, bringing noise and a lot of overloading issues. In such cases, a YouLoop (a passive rather than an amplifier loop) might be a better choice, signal to noise wise.
I bought a YouLoop and discovered that it has almost no signal output. a short piece of wire produces a stronger signal. Do NOT waste your money.
Medium wave sounded awesome!
Inspired in part by this video, I ordered one recently and it arrived today!
So far I am impressed with the performance and low noise floor. Until now I have been using a couple of metres of wire into a buffer amp in the loft, but boy does the GA-800 blow that setup out of the water - far less noise and I'm reading way more signals than I ever did before.
As someone else commented, there is definitely an issue with noise generated by the power box appearing across the HF band at multiples of 2450kHz. I tried using t-bias instead of the box and the noise went away, this is fine for me as I have modded my receiver and SDR setup to supply t-bias power.
The switch on the power box isn't great quality, but that's ok as my curiosity will have me dismantling both parts soon, at which time I'll replace the switch 😉
Does it have to have a switched supply at all? Couldnt one just supply it with battery voltage (3,7 - 4,2V) directly?
I was considering getting a GA-450 since I have no way of putting up any kind of wire antenna without getting incredibly inventive to hide it. So I'm pretty much stuck with using indoor antennas unfortunately. I'm going to have to look into getting this instead. Thanks for the heads up, very cool.
@@Nath4n1977 I have thhe MLa 30+ mounted on the garden fence. its a very good antenna but I think this antenna is better.
Mounted on the fence its not noticeable really.
The wife acceptance factor is good with the MLA 30+
Thank you for your useful videos. If you're so inclined, I'd love to see a comparison video btwn the MLA-30 and the GA-800. Many thanks.
Thanks for the suggestion James! I’ll see what I can do over the coming weeks. Thanks for watching 👌
@@TechMindsOfficial I would also love a comparison! I love my MLA-30+ but it would be nice to see how this would compete - especially with its smaller formfactor
I heard you recorded Dxcommander Callum at 7:36 good work
You can tell who’s watched the video and the ones who haven’t
Tecsun 880 good candidate? I don't get hardly any overload but about to try a better powered receive antenna outside so that could change. Cheers and Thank you!
I received a GA-800 yesterday. Charging was alright, LEDs both on loop and feeder lit up. On the antenna output side, there was nothing but noise! My particular item is trash. Could it be that the manufacturer has run into problems with satisfying demand? So as to work to poor qualitay standards? The product is well built, as seen from the outside, maybe there could be HF contact problems inside or what do you say?
Good for portable use and were long wires can't be used. Higher the wire and loooooong. Thanks for this review.
I have a question: I bought the GA-450 a while back but have not used it with much success. I have tested it indoors but not near a window which might be the problem. I get much noise and squeals as if it may be self-oscillating or whatever. I have tried to adjust the gain control on the box but that did not much help. In this video, you said the knob was an LC tuning knob. I was under the impression that it was a gain control for all frequencies?
A very good Tuesday evening to you all from Wellington Somerset
Good evening!
Does the ga800 need the foot amplifier or can it be driven with the bias tee from say sdrplay rspdx?
Wats the difference in performance in this than the 450 apart from the price ...thanks im
going to buy eighter .
As I cannot see which antenna is selected in the video, it makes less sense.
Will it outperform a 15 meter endfed?
So most are better on the end fed half wave, which means, there is no reason to use this for reception?
Great review - many thanks. Did you try frequencies above 20MHz - namely the 12m & 10m bands. I have a GA450 and it is very poor on these. Also, did you try LW? This is where smaller loops like the GA450 often struggle. As an aside, I noticed that the oscillation problem that I experience on the GA450 still appears to be present at 1.43MHz (at least). ( couldn't see it on other bands, but some harmonics may have been present at frequencies that you did not show. Again, many thanks for taking the time to do this.
Thank you for the comment Mike. I did try 12/10 but there was no activity while I was recording, not even on my EFHW. I did record this video over 3 days and still bands were quiet. I think it does work better on the lower bands. Totally gob smacked at how it received the NDB and my EFHW didn't!
@@TechMindsOfficial Thanks for getting back.
The NDB results at 432kHz are very strange. I realise that the EFHW must be miles away from resonance and its usual 3-5k Ohm impedance, but I would expect something to get through. Do you normally see signals on LW and MW using the EFHW? I am wondering if 432kHz is below the balun cut off or whether the antenna impedance at 432kHz is terribly mismatched. The whole spectrum looks dead for that test; it is not just a case of 432kHz being missing. Of course, the EFHW could potentially be pointing 90 degrees to the NDB and everything else too (very unlikely)... Interesting result, as you say.
Hi Tnx for the video
But can you also demonstrate this indoor antenna actually working indoors please as it would be helpful to people like me who can’t put an antenna outside 👍🏻
The testing in the video was with the antenna inside 👍
@@TechMindsOfficial
Ahh thanks very impressive in that case
I thought when you showed it outside in the garden that’s where you tested it much appreciated 👍🏻
hi Tech Minds,
i think the supplied bias tee box is bad. Too much noise, and a lot of noise when charging at the same time.
I use this antenna with the bias tee of a mini whip antenna with 5v.
the noise floor is much lower -120db at 80mtr and the signals are cleaner.
i also use an mla 30+ with the mini whip bias tee at 5v where the noise
floor is much higher -95db at 80mtr.
despite the much smaller loop dimensions, the ga -800 seems to perform better if you use the mini whip bias tee.
This works very well in my area, I'm curious about your findings.
thank you for this video.
Thanks for the comment, I will definitely try this! I wonder if the Bias Tee from an SDR would be powerful enough. Anyhow, thanks for your comment, I will test this.
@@TechMindsOfficial the power from sdrplay dx is not enough.
What would be great is a comparison between MLA30+ and GA800.
I bought the mla 30 about 6 months ago and it was brilliant at first but after a while it started to do really weird things. Perhaps the gl 800 will be better.
@@paulpearce1161 what weird things?
I highly doubt it is the antenna itself, maybe a noise source moved in nearby, or maybe your power supply, or maybe the coax itself (animal chewed it or something).
Have just received my GA 800 plugged the charging cable in and then into phone charger no charging light . I have the GA 450 and I always get a charging light when charging could you advise if you get a charging light please
Same problem, just received my GA 800, did you solve the problem?
This is great that it auto-tunes! I wonder what makes this a "receive only" antenna - like what part of the guts aren't up to transmitting?
It's more like "No Tuning" rather than "Auto Tuning" unlike the GA-450 which had a LC Tune control. Think of this like an MLA30. The control box shoots power up the coax to power the loop internals, most likely some form of pre-amp in there. So no good for transmitting unfortunately.
I wonder how well it will hold up fitted outside over winter.
Also, what about normal FM reception ?
Could you make a follow up video with frequencies above 20 mhz ?
I have a X1-HF Vertical 1-50 MHz Trapped Coil Receiving Antenna and with a 20db amplifier, its not bad dut I suspect this antenne is better
Sure! I can make a follow up video soon. Thanks
+100 for the cat!
Haha 😝
Are these better than an MLA-30+ or a Youloop?
will it work fine for NOAA APT's 137.5 MHz?
Haha I literally received my GA-450 today, does the GA-800 performs better battery wise?
I'm not entirely sure, I have not done a comparison tbh. Luckily it can be charged from a USB power bank, even portable if needs be.
Does this still receive the same as the 450 ?
how does this thing tune itself automatically?
What antenna is what input ?
Ga-450 or ga-800? Which one is better ?
Would this be good for picking up SSTV on 20m?
Most likely yes! Although for the higher bands positioning is key.
Nice. What about 10m and f.ex. 2m ?
10M wasn't active when I was testing unfortunately. 2M worked, I picked up a local repeater, but for any decent kind of work it would of needed to be higher. Unfortunately I wasn't able to test higher due to too many antenna up at the moment. :-)
I wonder how it compares to my YouLoop.
What SDR are you using with your PC?
RSPdx from SDR Play.
He said RSPdx from SDRplay.
How can it tune if it is receive only? How does it know your receiving band?
I have the same question!
Have you tried rotating the loop to see if it peaks the signal?
I have not tried that to be honest, sorry.
Is this an all weather antenna?....ie mount and leave.
Unfortunately not, this antenna is not weather proof. You will need to make it waterproof, like a plastic bag of somekind.
Mount in indoors near a window, and on a small table, and rotate the loop until the noise subsides!!
Have you had a look inside it yet?
Not yet! :-) But maybe I'll tweet a picture on Twitter if I take a pic.
Connect it to a vintage tube receiver
Really useful video for people like myself thinking about getting one of these. By the way I'm intrigued about the weather channel on 5975...... WNW referred to West North West. And she had a French accent. Also in the broadcast band so I wonder if it might have been Radio France International. It sounded like a VOLMET or METAR stn..... 73 Adam
Hello, how does it compare to the famous MLA-30?
In my experience, and from my testing of a MLA-30, the GA-450 and GA-800 is better. However it all depends on each installation and location and I could not give a 100% answer.
@@TechMindsOfficial thanks for the quick reply.. It's over twice the price of the MLA-30
@@TechMindsOfficial mla 30 wipes it's ass
Once you've paid import costs for this, you could get a cross country wireless v4......
Cool but 99 euros. It's expensive for the lil receiver I got.
The GA 800 is far superior.
While the videos are intresting,can you tell us the cost with import charges thanks
That information my friend would come from the Store you purchase it from.
Why can't you transmit with this antenna?
Because it's not designed to transmit. There is no switching in the LNA to bypass the LNA in transmit.
@@TechMindsOfficial Thanks
Not a bad price. They average $300 in USA
I bought and received the GA-800 and I would highly NOT Recommend this to anyone. The LED light on the loop side of the antenna never lit up. When turned on the noise level increased 10 fold. The a was Brennan never even picked up a signal. I then tore it up and threw it away. I’ll use the MLA-30+ any day. Or a telescopic aerial antenna as opposed to this piece of trash. Don’t waste your money like I did. Lesson learned.
Have you noticed that you got Crickets?? I've wondered if it just another letdown! I'm often on the hunt for a good indoor Shortwave antenna and I think that this might Not be all of that! Don't know if I'd buy it! Even though I've considered it. I've had an inexpensive homebrew experience work better than so many other things I've wasted my hard earned money on!! Think speaker wire and a mini balun!😉
If it Is a good indoor option, I can't help but wonder did you receive a defective one? But again, not sure I want to waste the money on this one!
Yes mla3plus is really good in hf.
Why didn’t you wait for better hf band conditions for the review? Useless.
Think about it some more why I didn’t wait… Hopefully you’ll understand.