Dear All,
This morning I did some tests at 20 meters. During strong wind force 8 I noticed that I regularly have to tune the baby loop antenna again. Because of the strong wind it seems that the capacity has changed every time.
I also want to report that that the loop antenna is quiet compared to the End Fed antenna that I also use.
I would like to hear your experiences.
Thanks in advance!
I wish you all a happy new year.
73 Gerard PA7GMU
Antenna: Baby loop
Tuner 2.0 software version 3.20
Transceiver: IC-7410
Hi I have just joined , and have been reading with interest comments regarding connecting the bay loop to Flex radios, I have a version1 controller and will be up grading to version 2 shortly, in a recent storm my yaesu G250 rotator was damaged and needs replacing,g250 rotators are no longer being produced,
a Yaesu G450C seems to be the next choice, how ever it wont fit in the bracket I have,on the side of my pole, and will have to be fitted on the top of my pole which is on the garage roof 2 meters up from the roof floor, will I have to reduce my pole height to have the new loop height at 2 meters to the base of the loop ? comments or advice would be appreciated
73's
Liam EI8HY
Hi Gerard,
I have solved the unstable swr in wind problem. The white plastic guide on the capacitor was not making contact on one side. This allowed the capacitor to vibrate in wind, which of course caused variations in resonate frequency and swr. I simply readjusted the plate with the plastic guide on it so it would lightly contact the plate when closed. Problem solved! Antenna works great now. Very low swr on all bands and stable in wind.
73 all
Mike K7FB
Hi Mike,
Does you use an automatic tuner in your transceiver.
If you do, disable the transceiver internal tuner.
If not, please show me a picture of the SWR variations.
73 Gerard
I am having problems with my BABY loop in the wind. With a very modest wind (10mph) the antenna is not usable. The SWR jumps all over the place 1 to 20+ very rapidly. The amp will shut down. This happens on all the low bands.....20, 30 and 40 meters. It is installed only about 7 feet high and will tune perfectly on all bands. Any help would be appreciated.
Mike K7FB
Hi, Gerard, this is not really unusual. The loop has an inductance of 3uH, and to tune to, say 14.2MHz requires a capacitance of 41.873pF. If the resonant frequency shifts by the bandwidth of the loop, in the case of 20m, by 6kHz, then for a resonant frequency of 14.206MHz, the capacitance is 41.838pF, a change of only -0.035pF! A change of 6kHz on 20m would therefore change the SWR significantly. So, do not be too concerned.
Adrian, 5B4AIY