Category Archives: Antennas

Giuseppe’s portable multi-loop homemade shoe rack antenna

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Giuseppe Morlè, who writes:

Dear Thomas,

I’m Giuseppe Morlè iz0gzw from central Italy on the Tyrrhenian Sea, Formia.

I am sending you this umpteenth project of mine built with poor materials…it is a test bench, loops / capacitors to find the best tuning.

The frame is a shoe rack in beech wood, very light, to take anywhere or to try out at home.
On the frame, there are 4 different loops of different sizes and 3 variable capacitors with different capacities. Only one signal transfer link to the receiver for all loops.

With alligator plugs I can use the different combinations of loop / variable to find the best tune

This test rig can tune the whole HF frequency range and medium wave.

I’ve attached 3 videos where you can see from the beginning to the last test on the balcony of my house.

Videos

Note that the following videos are in Italian, but you can turn on closed captioning and in the settings of the video have it auto-translate into the language of choice:

Click here to view on YouTube.

All, as always, spending very little and employing used materials!

Thanks to you and a warm greeting to the whole SWLing Post community.

I remain available for any clarification.

Greetings to all and good experimentation!

Thank you for sharing this Giuseppe! I love your ingenuity and spirit of experimentation! What a fun project that obviously yields excellent results!

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Frugal Radio’s Loop On Ground (LoG) Antenna

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Rob, with Frugal Radio, who writes:

On New Year’s Day I decided to spend some time make a Loop on the Ground HF antenna. It had been a project I had wanted to undertake for a while, after seeing the KK5JY web site.

The LoG is supposed to work fairly well in noisy RF environments, and with my house being in suburbia,I thought it would be worth a shot.

I use some old speaker wire, RG6, some connectors I had lying around, and some random items from the back yard (old tyre, flower pot etc). It only took about 30 minutes to build with the stuff I already had lying around. I used a NooElec balun as my transformer.

Despite the snow on the ground, it all worked.
I made a video showing the construction and initial testing which your readers may enjoy.

As you mention, Rob, the LoG has become a very popular antenna for folks living in an urban RFI jungle. Paired with a nice high dynamic range SDR, the results are quite impressive and the noise floor much lower than it would be with a traditional wire antenna or even a sky loop. I am curious how it compares with any other antennas as your home. Thanks for sharing!

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Ernie’s portable Youloop antenna deployment system

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Ernie (NH7L), who shares the following photo and notes that this is his solution to “Youloop strain relief.”

I love it, Ernie! Very practical, affordable, accessible, and portable! Perfect for hanging on the curtain rod in your hotel room as well!

Thanks for sharing your tip!

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Ulrich seeks advice with Tecsun PL-365/PL-368 ferrite bar issues

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Ulrich Ruch, who writes:

Hi Thomas

Wondering if you’ve heard of similar experiences: since receipt on 4th
November I have been using the new gadget (Firmware 3684E) almost daily
until yesterday when the ferrite bar antenna suddenly did not work any
longer. I became aware of the fault when I put the rod into the antenna
jack noticing that the field strength reading drops to zero so that the
radio becomes deaf!

I somehow suspect that the fault lies in the socket. As a matter of
fact, I had/have the same problem with the old 365 with its green design
ferrite rod. What seems rather odd to me however, is the fact that if I
plug in an external active antenna (Wellbrook, Bonito, RF Systems
DX-one) both units work properly, furthermore, the 368 ferrite bar
miraculously works on the 365 whereas the 365 rod doesn’t on either
model!? So, with the best of will, I cannot blame the socket for sure –
or is it that the rod-plugs are too thin to give proper contact – I
don’t know.

Since I was unable to find any pertaining findings in the net, I do hope
that you may have further information from your worldwide reader feedbacks!?

SWLing Post readers: If you have experienced this same issue or can diagnose what might be happening with Ulrich’s PL-365 and PL-368, please comment!

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The new Stampfl MWS-1 Standing Wave Barrier

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Markku (VA3MK), who notes that Swiss manufacturer Stampfl has introduced the MWS-1 Standing Wave Barrier.

Stampfl notes (translated from German):

A standing wave barrier can improve reception. The standing wave barrier interrupts the ground loop and suppresses the interference caused by the cable shield.

This is designed only to work with receivers (not transmitters) between 0.15 – 30 MHz.

I suppose this might be a form of an RF choke, although I’m sure someone else might know better.

Thank you for the tip, Markku!

Click here to check out the MWS-1 at Stampfl.

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Airspy HF+ Discovery & Shortwave Portables: Having Fun with the Airspy YouLoop!

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bill Hemphill, who shares the following guest post:

YouLoop Antenna Fun

by Billy Hemphill WD9EQD

Like many listeners, I live in an antenna restricted community. While I have strung up some hidden outdoor wire antennas, I have found that they didn’t really perform that much better than just using the telescoping antenna with maybe a length of wire attached. The biggest problem (whether indoor or outdoor antenna) has been the high noise floor.

A few months ago I bought an AirSpy HF+ Discovery SDR receiver. I had already owned a couple of SDRPlay SDR receivers, but the high noise floor limited their performance. I had read good reviews about the AirSpy, especially its performance on the AM Broadcast band and the lower shortwave bands.

I have about 80 feet of speaker wire strung from the second floor and across the high windows in the living room. This does perform fairly well, but the high noise floor still exists.

A couple of weeks ago, I bought the YouLoop Magnetic Loop antenna from AirSpy. I gave it a try and am amazed at the lower noise floor compared to the indoor wire antenna.

Wire Antenna vs. YouLoop–some examples:

AirSpy with Wire Antenna

AirSpy with YouLoop

AirSpy with Wire Antenna

AirSpy with YouLoop

AirSpy with Wire Antenna

AirSpy with YouLoop

Dramatic reduction in the noise floor. I’ve done a lot of playing around with it and find that the YouLoop picks up just about the same stations as the indoor wire antenna does. But with the lower noise level, the YouLoop makes it more enjoyable to listen. Overall, the YouLoop is now my main antenna.

YouLoop with a Portable Radio

It works so well with the AirSpy, I started wondering if I could use it with a portable radio, like the Tecsun PL-880. But the AirSpy website has the following note:

Note: It is very likely your third party radio will not be sensitive enough to operate with the YouLoop properly. We have even seen self-documented failed attempts to build pre-amplifiers to compensate for the lack of sensitivity and/or the required dynamic range in third party radios. Use your brain, and eventually an Airspy HF+ Discovery.

Doesn’t sound like it will work with portable radios. BUT, I’m always one to try anyway.

Tecsun PL-880

Since the YouLoop has a SMA connector, I bought a SMA to 1/8” phone jack cable. Plugged it into the PL-880 antenna jack and found I had almost a dead radio. Very few stations heard. But in playing around, I accidentally touched the phone plug to the telescoping antenna and instantly got strong signals.

I did some very unscientific tests. I attached the YouLoop through the side antenna jack, did an ATS scan, then did the same with the YouLoop clipped to the telescoping antenna. Also did a scan with just the telescoping antenna fully extended.. I got some very interesting results. These were done one after the other, so there can be differences in signal fading, etc.

I have repeated the above test several times at different hours. While the actual number of ATS stations varied, the ratio between them remained fairly consistent to the above numbers.

From the above, it appears that the telescoping antenna circuit is more sensitive than the 1/8” antenna jack circuit. Maybe some attenuation is being added to the 1/8” jack since it’s more likely a higher gain antenna would be used there. Can anyone confirm that the circuit indeed attenuates thru the antenna jack?

The YouLoop seems to be a decent performer when directly clipped to the telescoping antenna. While not as good as a high gain outdoor antenna would be, it definitely is usable for indoor uses.

I also tested it clipped to the antennas of some other portable receivers. Tecsun S-8800, PL-330, Panasonic RF-2200 and Philco T-9 Trans-World receivers. All showed an increase over just using the telescoping antenna.

Some interesting notes:

The Tecsun PL-330 saw the same reduction in signal when directly plugged into the antenna jack as opposed to clipping on the telescoping antenna.

The Tecsun S-8800 did not show that much of a drop. I basically got the same number of stations when clipped to antenna as when I connected to the BNC jack:

In conclusion, I find that I can use the YouLoop with my portable radios to increase the signals on strong stations when used indoors. And it is quite the performer when used with the AirSpy HF+ Discovery SDR receiver. It easily portable and I find that I move it around the house as I need to. I just hang it off a window curtain rod. I may just order a second one so that my family room radio has one permanently attached to it.

Click here to check out the Youloop at Airspy.com.

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Guest Post: Pavel’s Homebrew “Monster” Drain Pipe FSL Antenna

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Pavel Kraus, for the following guest post:

Building a Drain Pipe FSL Antenna

by Pavel Kraus

Hi, I greet all DX fans and the entire SWLing Post community! I enjoy reading reading this blog and the diversity of contributions from our authors and contributors; many thanks from me for so much useful information.

The following are the construction notes of my FSL antenna, which I designed thanks to the suggestions of GaryDeBock, and other FSL designers.

The antenna is a classic design featuring 60 ferrite rods 200x 10 mm, which are placed on a plastic sewage pipe.

Pict 3: Pipe with ferrite rods and windings

Pict 4: Pipe with ferrite rods and windings

In addition, sewer pipe sections are used for the entire antenna cover. I assume that this material can be obtained in other countries as well. Continue reading →

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