Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Ola, who shares a link to this inexpensive mag loop antenna on eBay.
I have no clue if this antenna performs as well at all, but the price is certainly much lower than its competition at $47.99 US.
It appears you’ll need to supply your own dielectric center support for this loop–a length of PVC would do the trick.
Copycat–?
I don’t like the fact this manufacturer has chosen the name “Mega Loop Active” for their antenna as the name is too similar to Bonito’s “MegaLoop FX Active.” I don’t like the confusion that could create, so I would hope this Chinese manufacturer would change this in time.
To be very clear, this product has no affiliation with Bonito and I certainly would not expect the quality or performance you would get from a Bonito product. Bonito products are pricey, but they’re design and manufactured in Germany and set benchmarks in terms of performance and quality. I’m a big believer in “you pay for what you get.”
I suppose though if you’re just looking for a cheap antenna to test, this one is quite inexpensive. Just know that it is not a Bonito MegaLoop, despite the similarities in product name! 🙂
If anyone like to test the MegaLoop FX live on the air, you can do it here: http://emeraldsdr.ddns.net:8073/
The MegaDipol can be tested on the same location here: http://emeraldsdr.ddns.net:8074/
I avoid sellers with a feedback less than body temperature.
Likely a good benchmark! 🙂
A part of me is tempted to compare this with my ML-200. But then again, considering that in my good location conditions the ML is for the most part a continuing disappointment above 3MHz (like last night at the dike, where the whip of the S-8800 and a ground connection to the radio outperformed the ML considerably on shortwave), the outcome can only be bad:
– If the funny typo in the article is true and the cheapo beats the almost 10 times more expensive ML-200 on shortwave, or if it’s anywhere near the performance of the ML below 3MHz I’ll be hating that, anyone else who bought an ML will hate that, Bonito will be hating that even more.
– If the cheapo doesn’t beat anything anywhere, I’ll have wasted another 50 bucks on proving that “you get what you pay for” and I’ll be hating that too.
So I guess I better pass on this one, and enjoy the ML for what it’s good at: last night I had my first proper reception of a transatlantic MW station (1390 kHz, alas remaining UNID so far), despite mid summer being the worst time for that (right between the typical MW DX seasons) and the S-8800 being my 2nd worst MW performer – on the ML-200.
“ML is for the most part a continuing disappointment above 3MHz (like last night at the dike, where the whip of the S-8800 and a ground connection to the radio outperformed the ML considerably on shortwave)”
I had a similar experience with the Boni-Whip, except I had totally unimpressive performance across the board. It is my worst-performing active antenna.
I have no idea where these glowing reviews are coming from, because the MegaLoop series costs as much as a well-known, top-performing loop antenna from the UK.
AK, you have a point. I thought I had read a positive review of the FX Active by Clint G. (Oxford Shortwave), but now I can’t place it. I may have been wrong.
I have used the MegaLoop ML052 at a condo one summer (it was my primary HF RX antenna) and was pretty impressed. I did not have another loop on that trip to form a comparison impression, though.
Clint did favorably review the BoniWhip:
https://swling.com/blog/2017/04/the-bonito-boni-whip-goes-from-strength-to-strength-hardcore-dxing-in-compact-package/
Thanks for your comment.
Cheers,
Thomas
> “I had a similar experience with the Boni-Whip, except I had totally unimpressive performance across the board. It is my worst-performing active antenna.”
My personal take is that there’s a real tendency for people – particularly newbies, but also quite prevalent amongst many who would consider themselves experts – to believe, or want to believe, that there exists a perfect antenna. And if they can start with that it’ll overcome any limitations they may be stuck with, that they’ll be able to receive everything they’ve heard about, and if they don’t start with the best then they’re somehow doing it wrong and have failed at the hobby.
And that goes double for active/amplified antennas of any stripe – for some reason, many people hope against all experience and science that this time the’ve finally found the one that really _does_ separate the signal from the noise, will overcome the limitation of not being able to have a large antenna outside well away from all interfering / noise sources, and give them a magical ability to receive everything they’ve ever wanted.
And, of course, that’s rubbish. There can be no “one size fits all situations” perfect antenna; it’s _always_ a trade-off that includes – apart from the obvious like wanted bands & required bandwidth – multiple factors that are highly location/site/situation dependent. Noise (& type of noise), shadowing and reflections, availability of a good *RF* earth, etc, etc all play into what makes the ideal antenna for a particular location/purpose. But it does lead to people claiming loudly that *their* favourite antenna that works fine for them is the best one ever…
I mean, it’s no secret that I’m a big fan of tuned receive small loops and think active whips/mini-whips have severe limitations for *most* locations/situations – but I’d never claim that they’re the ideal antenna. They’re just easy to build and, I personally think, much more likely to provide decent results easily than an amplified whip or even small longwire in situations where people are space-constrained and unlikely to have access to a good earth (e.g. apartments, suburbia, etc, etc.).
Things like the Bonito whip or PA0RDT miniwhip certainly haven’t worked well for me in my situation – but I’ve seen too many people I know and trust obtain some fairly spectacular results from them, so they must work in some situations.So I can accept that they work, even if I do think a tuned small receive loop would be a better starting point ;).
To be fair, “disappointment above 3 MHz” is not entirely correct, it’s surprisingly good again on FM and even beyond the specified range, I can see the usual suspects among the 250MHz milsat transponders on my SDR pretty fine and hear the Brazilian pirates chatting on them. 🙂
Re the Boni-Whip – I didn’t try any of those yet, what were the antennas you compared it with?
There’s a “not” missing in that sentence…
Ouf!!! Thanks for that. 🙂 Yeah–that’s what I get for hammering out a post before heading out for the day! 🙂
“To be very clear, this product has no affiliation with Bonito and I certainly would expect the quality or performance you would get from a Bonito product”
Reread that.
Yes, yes. Missing a knot! I mean…not! 🙂