Constructing Loop Antennas on a budget - a practical guide how to - and a challenge to do so. Presentation by Will Fludgate G1YYU of MKARS (Milton Keynes Amateur Radio Society) - www.mkars.org.uk
Hi Tim, Ray M0RAY here, Brilliant presentation om. Aerials are my favourite subject of Amateur-Radio, but although I once took part in the making of a large mag loop, which worked fantastic on several different bands, the highlite for me was a contact on 20Mtrs SSB into VK land & getting a 57 report from him when I turned the power down from 50 Watts to 3 Watts without him noticing what I had done. The mag loop project was part of a club field weekend activities playing around with Aerials of different types which were also made from scratch during the same weekend. I must admit that this was quite some years ago during the last High part of the sunspot cycle. After receiving that 57 report, I turned the power back up to 50 Watts h asked the VK5 guy to check the readings again for us, he then gave us 5 by 10 over 9 report. Not bad going for a club team Aerials building field weekend set of projects. I myself have still yet to build myself a decent multi band mag loop covering from at least 3.5 MHz & several bands above. Kind Regards, Ray, M0RAY, Locator ~ JO01ii.
Loads of videos with mag loops.. This one I feel, is unique because of the ceramic capacitor portion. Funny that I have the same or similar M6013 meter sitting in front of me. Good information. Thanks from KK5VN.
I've been a fan of MagLoops for decades (4+) and am fairly familiar with the concept and use but I still learned some interesting/important points from this presentation. Good job OM...... 73 OM
I built one recently and I can’t seem to get it to work well. Only one qso. It’s 16 ft around 4ft inner loop. Both made from lnr 400 using the braid. 10-310 pf capacitor
This was a case of “you had to be there” I’ve built a few mag loops now as prototypes out of left over RG6 cable from some CCTV pulls. I don’t use a coupling loop, I pass the coax through an old computer toroid that was used for RF suppression in the internal connections to the front panel. I’ve also used a couple I tore out of an old dead computer power supply. Both work successfully I pass the coax through the core and have 3 turns of hook up wire as the feed to the coax. I found for larger power, I was saturating the core so I stacked a few and can now run a hundred watts into it. The problem is the capacitor stubs I made from off cuts of RG6 often arc out. 50W is reasonably safe. I’m looking at making a motorised variable capacitor out of single sided circuit board in a slide arrangement. That way I can shape the track to fine tune through the Ham bands and coarse tune in between. Use a geared motor driving a threaded rod. One plate has a nut attached that slides up and down along the threaded rod. At the moment, I just swap out coax stubs for the different band segments.
Thanks for a great video! Inspiring me to have a go! When he's seeing the peaks when tuning that looks like sharpsdr, is he literally just reading off peaks of signal/noise? Or is there something more involved there?
I didn't understand what was going on either. Watching again and turning up the volume I gather he was checking the bandwidth. Not having sdr I don't understand these peaks. I got fed up with him banging things around.
Hi Tim,
Ray M0RAY here,
Brilliant presentation om. Aerials are my favourite subject of Amateur-Radio, but although I once took part in the making of a large mag loop, which worked fantastic on several different bands, the highlite for me was a contact on 20Mtrs SSB into VK land & getting a 57 report from him when I turned the power down from 50 Watts to 3 Watts without him noticing what I had done. The mag loop project was part of a club field weekend activities playing around with Aerials of different types which were also made from scratch during the same weekend. I must admit that this was quite some years ago during the last High part of the sunspot cycle. After receiving that 57 report, I turned the power back up to 50 Watts h asked the VK5 guy to check the readings again for us, he then gave us 5 by 10 over 9 report.
Not bad going for a club team Aerials building field weekend set of projects.
I myself have still yet to build myself a decent multi band mag loop covering from at least 3.5 MHz & several bands above.
Kind Regards,
Ray,
M0RAY,
Locator ~ JO01ii.
Great delivery and humour brother could watch you all day 👍
A very interesting video brought alive by the presenter. Thank you.
Loads of videos with mag loops.. This one I feel, is unique because of the ceramic capacitor portion. Funny that I have the same or similar M6013 meter sitting in front of me. Good information. Thanks from KK5VN.
I've been a fan of MagLoops for decades (4+) and am fairly familiar with the concept and use but I still learned some interesting/important points from this presentation.
Good job OM......
73 OM
I built one recently and I can’t seem to get it to work well. Only one qso. It’s 16 ft around 4ft inner loop. Both made from lnr 400 using the braid. 10-310 pf capacitor
Although I found the presentation quite boring I did gain some useful knowledge from it so thank you.
This was a case of “you had to be there”
I’ve built a few mag loops now as prototypes out of left over RG6 cable from some CCTV pulls.
I don’t use a coupling loop, I pass the coax through an old computer toroid that was used for RF suppression in the internal connections to the front panel. I’ve also used a couple I tore out of an old dead computer power supply. Both work successfully
I pass the coax through the core and have 3 turns of hook up wire as the feed to the coax.
I found for larger power, I was saturating the core so I stacked a few and can now run a hundred watts into it. The problem is the capacitor stubs I made from off cuts of RG6 often arc out. 50W is reasonably safe.
I’m looking at making a motorised variable capacitor out of single sided circuit board in a slide arrangement. That way I can shape the track to fine tune through the Ham bands and coarse tune in between.
Use a geared motor driving a threaded rod. One plate has a nut attached that slides up and down along the threaded rod. At the moment, I just swap out coax stubs for the different band segments.
I like the clown pants and the sport coat. Interesting mix.
Love the trousers!
Well done Will. 73
A G1 Playing on HF !!! I was doing this 30 years ago, whats changed..
Put on video now so all can know.
Nice video TNX information
Thanks for a great video! Inspiring me to have a go!
When he's seeing the peaks when tuning that looks like sharpsdr, is he literally just reading off peaks of signal/noise? Or is there something more involved there?
I didn't understand what was going on either.
Watching again and turning up the volume I gather he was checking the bandwidth. Not having sdr I don't understand these peaks.
I got fed up with him banging things around.
I believe he was using "HDSDR" programming on the computer, not SDRsharp.
Audio a bit muffled. Very annoying keep banging things down.
Get on with it David Brent. Bloody painful.
Come....taste the neurodivergence!