Last week my new magnetic loop antenna from OM0ET arrived at my QTH. After reading many different comments about magnetic loop antennas, both on RX loops and TX loops, my attention was drawn to the design of OM0ET. Of course there are many other manufacturers like Alexloop, Chameleon P-loop or even the new Icom AL-705 loop antenna, but looking at the prices and even the construction of some, I couldn’t resist contacting Paul OM0ET and asking him numerous of questions on his Loop antenna. After some email exchange the decision was quickly made and Paul promised to make me a new antenna as the last production run was sold out. Within 2 weeks of ordering a new Loop antenna was built and shipped to the Netherlands. Upon arrival, I couldn’t resist opening the newly designed shipping box that comes with the loop to directly test the antenna (see photo).
One of the questions I had prior to purchase was how to mount the loop antenna? Of course, I had watched several YouTube videos and saw Paul and others using a simple camera tripod. After consultation with Paul I decided to purchase this simple Tripod standard via Amazon.nl
The whole purpose of having a magnetic loop in my Ham collection is to explore different aspects of our multifaceted hobby such as field and QRP experiments. As you may know, I like to call Ragchew, CQ DX with QRO power and chase DX in the comfort of my Radio Shack. But since the IC-705 came into my collection and already proved to be a great added value, used as 2nd VHF/UHF radio, SWL radio and RFI Hunting Tool, I started to think about more outdoor activities without having much material to be carried at the same time. So with this new little wonder coupled with this magnetic loop I’m able to quickly set everything up in 5 minutes and be ready to go…
As shown in the picture below, you can see the magnetic loop and tripod in front of my house in a Test-st up. During testing I looked for the band at 20mtr where I came across a Big gun station LZ2VU and after calling CQ CQ twice, Juli answered my PB5X/QRP call and gave me a 5/9 (distance 1834 Km). So you can imagine I was very ecstatic, because all the effort I had undertaken paid off instantly.
The next few months and ofcourse praying for better WX, I will do some more field and QRP experiments with this simple set up.
If you would like to know more about this topic please do not hestitate to drop me an email at roma-dx@ziggo.nl or just use the CONTACT form on this webpage.
OM0ET Magnetic loop antenna check: UltraLight MLA MC-20 – OM0ET | HamRadio Antennas (sk-tech.sk) or just search OM0ET loop antenna on You Tube
73 Roberto PB5X
