[Lowfer] How the heck does Ralph receive so well ??

[Zack Widup]

After playing with my loop for several weeks, I'm kind of disappointed in
it. I'm not sure what the trouble is.

My loop is 20 turns of #18 stranded insulated wire on a pvc "X" and the loop
is 5 ft square. The turns are spaced 0.75 inches. My tuner is the W1TAG
remote relay-switched capacitor tuner and my preamp is the W1VD preamp in
the shack.

The line to the shack is a 50 foot length of shielded pair of #22 stranded
insulated wire (not twisted). The eight capacitor relays are switched with a
length of CAT-5 cable and the shield on the other cable acts as the ground
for the relay switching voltages.

I can find the definite peaks in the signals by switching the capacitors but
my received signals from the loop are not very strong on my TS-850SAT. My
40-meter full-wave vertical loop (12 ft vertical and 58 ft horizontal
dimensions) actually receives far better signals without a preamp than the
LF loop with the W1VD preamp. This is across the whole frequency range of
about 100 kHz to 500 kHz.

Maybe I need a preamp with more gain? Any other suggestions? Noise hasn't
been a problem for me. I am also thinking of building an e-probe. But I
expected more out of this loop antenna.

73, Zack W9SZ


On Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 9:25 PM, Andy - KU4XR <ku4xr at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Is it the E-Probe ? or maybe the HP SLM ? location ?
> He consistently picks up the same stations over and over,
> including " MP " over 1200 miles, from sunset to sunrise.
> Unbelievable reception capabilities. I can look all night
> using any antenna combination I have and never see a hint
> of a signal. But I do think that my location is very noisy.
> My signal meter right now at 0317 UTC is showing an S-4
> with both 500 Hz filters engaged on CW receive. I can switch
> to A.M. and the meter reads S-9+10. the lowest I've ever saw
> my S-Meter is about an S 2-1/2....  May need to start looking
> into building a loop, and maybe even a noise canceler.
> Good DX-ing everybody ;
>
> 73 :::
>
>
>
> Andy - KU4XR - EM75xr - Friendsville, TN.
> LOWfer Beacon " XR " @ 185.29866 KHz ( QRSS-60 )
> Coordinates:  N:  35* 43' 54" - W:  84* 3' 16"
> http://www.myspace.com/beaconxr
> http://webpages.charter.net/ku4xr/
>
>
>
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