A final stab at antennas

Have tried various antennas and am still plagued by noise and poor reception, best so far has been a Solarcon A99 poked through the loft hatch.

Was browsing Evilbay in the small hours of the morning and came across someone who builds magnetic loops for quite a low price, £123 delivered. There is a lead time of about 20 days for it to be built, and am looking forward to it arriving. I will mount it in my front, South facing, window and hope it solves my issues, will report back once it is installed.

Is it for the 11m band or general HF bands.

20-17-15-12-11 and 10 m, he does do one that goes to 40 m, but that is nearly double the cost.

Hi Mark,

I thought you had resolved your noise issues a few weeks back with the MFJ unit?

https://charlietangodxgroup.forumotion.com/t5103-mfj-1026-deluxe-noise-canceling-signal-enhancer


I built my own magnetic loop last summer and had a lot of fun with it but it never equalled my simple dipole/doublet setup for performance.

https://charlietangodxgroup.forumotion.com/t4456-homebrew-magnetic-loop


My initial CB radio frustrations were quelled by taking the Ham ticket and even with small antennas plus modes like FT8 I've now been able to work the world with what some might call small 'dismal' setups. Those 10 Watts can work wonders.


Let's hope this all works out for you.


All the best,
Victor

Hi Victor, solved most of the noise but nothing coming in, everyone else seems to be getting contacts, aside from a few Italians am getting nothing.

It's not really frustration, as am having fun learning and playing with various setups. I can see a few antenna's and PSU's going up in the for sale section at some point.

To take the ham exam, I will need to get a photo I.D, am not allowed to drive due to meds and have not had a passport since my Navy days. Just need to get a photo taken against a neutral background and then will be off like Neddy the three-legged racehorse

13oots2 wrote:

Have tried various antennas and am still plagued by noise and poor reception, best so far has been a Solarcon A99 poked through the loft hatch.

Was browsing Evilbay in the small hours of the morning and came across someone who builds magnetic loops for quite a low price, £123 delivered. There is a lead time of about 20 days for it to be built, and am looking forward to it arriving. I will mount it in my front, South facing, window and hope it solves my issues, will report back once it is installed.

Hi Mark, I hope it works well for you.
I had the ss6900 and tried everything to cut the noise down, the only thing that worked for me was a cheapie s/h HF radio.
I vary rarely get more than S3 now.

As Victor said with getting a 'ticket' the radio world really opens up, have you considered that route?

Tony M7DVQ

Edit: 
Just seen your reply to Victor, my photo ID was my oldies bus pass.

i sometimes think that with cb being with us for all these years why do we still need these big tall antennas (silver rods etc ) you would have thought they would have come up with short powerful ant's still i suppose it's all part of the fun getting and trying different ant's and getting some good DX ing 

Ah yes, despite being housebound with disability myself my photo driving licence was still valid when I took my online Ham exam. (Never had a passport - plenty to see here. )

There's all this malarkey going on with photo voting ID at the moment for the local elections and then general elections so I wonder if that is a valid photo ID? Might be worth contacting your local council or representative to find out.


....I thought we 'won' the war, so what's with all this "Show me your Paperz!"


Keep enjoying yourself there Mark and take care.

why is that Victor do you need photo id to vote now (here speaks someone who has never voted in their life ) 

Lionel,

As Scottie of Star Trek fame would assert, "You cannae change the laws of Physics!"

My own attempts at homebuilt antennas on a mid-terraced small garden property have often seen me frustrated.

The fellas that explain "Bigger & Higher" for best antennas aren't peeing up the proverbial wall.


I don't know the reasoning behind voter ID but some 'git' obviously came up with some excuse. It doesn't matter what box you tick.....the 'government' always wins!


Anyway, apologies Mark we've gone a bit off-topic now.
I hope your mag-loop helps out and worth looking into getting that 'ticket' sometime. Best thing I ever did.

13oots2 wrote:

To take the ham exam, I will need to get a photo I.D, am not allowed to drive due to meds and have not had a passport since my Navy days

Mark,
I contacted Bev in the Examination department of RSGB and she emailed me with:

Quote :

Quote :

Good morning Tony,

Quote :

As long as you have two current legal documents that have your printed name and signature on that the invigilator can check that will be fine.

Quote :

Kind regards

Quote :

Bev

So photo is not actually essential

Tonyvic wrote:

13oots2 wrote:

To take the ham exam, I will need to get a photo I.D, am not allowed to drive due to meds and have not had a passport since my Navy days

Mark,
I contacted Bev in the Examination department of RSGB and she emailed me with:

Quote :

Quote :

Good morning Tony,

Quote :

As long as you have two current legal documents that have your printed name and signature on that the invigilator can check that will be fine.

Quote :

Kind regards

Quote :

Bev

So photo is not actually essential

I have a credit card and birth certificate and loads of correspondence from the Department of Stealth and Total Obscurity, I hope that would be enough.

I remember now, I told porkies earlier. I used my Debit Card and either Birth or Marriage certificate.

Victor wrote:

Lionel,

As Scottie of Star Trek fame would assert, "You cannae change the laws of Physics!"

My own attempts at homebuilt antennas on a mid-terraced small garden property have often seen me frustrated.

The fellas that explain "Bigger & Higher" for best antennas aren't peeing up the proverbial wall.


I don't know the reasoning behind voter ID but some 'git' obviously came up with some excuse. It doesn't matter what box you tick.....the 'government' always wins!


Anyway, apologies Mark we've gone a bit off-topic now.
I hope your mag-loop helps out and worth looking into getting that 'ticket' sometime. Best thing I ever did.

well as the pop song went a few years ago by D ream things can only get better 

Well done Tony with contacting the RSGB examination department.  

I know their website still states photo ID requirements :-

https://rsgb.org/main/rsgb-examination-booking/rsgb-remote-invigilation-exam-terms-and-conditions/

and when I took my remote/online exam the test call previously had the invigilator asking for photo ID.


Did you take your exam remotely or at a club in person?

Only asking for future reference in case others ask the same question.

Victor,
I took the exam remotely and during the test call the invigilator asked me to show my photo I.D. to make sure he could read it ok, I explained I didn't have any and before I could explain I had contacted Bev he asked what I did have. I told him Debit card and Marriage Certificate He said ok "show me both sides of your card but cover your 3 digit security code then your certificate". After getting them if focus he "that's fine".

ps. I realised after my previous post when I said "Birth or Marriage certificate", if my Birth certificate had my signature on it I was an absolute genius at a few days old!

Ha! Ha!

Yeah, signing your own birth certificate would be an issue!


Cheers Tony, always good to know such things with our efforts to help others.

you certainly would have done well there Tony  

Went to book my exam yesterday and was a few quid short, had expensive day as I broke my ultra expensive mobile phone, had to get new contract to tide me over for a month. Repair for the phone is a toasty £259, at least I will get a good signal on that.

Just had email to say the magnetic loop has been dispatched, it should arrive around the same time my new to me Icom 735 arrives. I already have the ATU for fine-tuning the SWR, am looking forward to listening for now until I get my Foundation licence. I will eventually save up for a radio with a waterfall function to help with tuning the loop.

The magnetic loop arrived this afternoon and having been having a play. I had upgraded the loop to include the motor tuning unit and am glad that I did, it is pretty easy to tune and fine tune as the control box has fast and slow buttons.

The loop and capacitor are very well-made, and I even got a free keyring, it came with 3 meters of coax and about the same for the motor control. Although the motor is rated at 12V, I was assured that 13.8V is fine to use. Tuning is pretty simple, just listen for the loudest background noise, and you are in the right ballpark, switch to the slow mode and then fine tune, an SWR meter is pretty essential for this type of tuning. I am sure it would be even easier with a radio that has a waterfall display.

I have been listening to the 20M band and have picked up Italy, Scotland and Denmark in the couple of hours that I have been testing it. It seems to work well through the walls of my brick building, as Scotland and Denmark are to the rear of my flat. 11M is quite quiet for me and have yet to pick up any transmissions, perhaps a change of position will help with that.

All in all am very happy with the purchase and is by far the best antenna for my situation of living in an HA flat.

Glad you're having fun with your new magnetic loop as well as picking up loads of signals.

Propagation conditions aren't exactly at their best currently so you should be even more delighted when they are!

You've got the rig & the 'twig', now you just need that licence.


All the best to you,
Victor

As Victor said just the ticket to get now and your away.
Been thinking about that loop you bought for some time now so looking forward to your reports with it.