Tag Archives: MLA-30

Rick compares the Bonito ML200, Cross Country Wireless, MLA-30 and Wellbrook 1530LN

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mike Ladd, who shares the following video by Rick King who compares four mag loop antennas: the MLA-30, Cross Country Wireless, Bonito ML200, and the Wellbrook 1530LN.

Click here to view on YouTube.

Excellent comparison, Rick!

Although we’ve previously posted reviews and comments about the MLA30, I’m quite impressed that it gave the venerable Wellbrook a run for its money. I’m not surprised the Bonito ML200 was the winner here–Bonito quality is second to none.

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“G8JNJ Reverse Engineers and Reviews the MLA-30”

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Paul, who shares the following story from the RTL-SDR.com blog:

Last month we posted a collection of reviews about the MLA-30 which is a budget magnetic loop antenna designed for receiving HF signals. The overall consensus from the reviews was that it worked decently for the price, but of course could never live up to the high end loops that cost hundreds of dollars.

Recently Martin (G8JNJ) reverse engineered the active circuit used on the loop from photos taken by M0LMK and has made some observations on it’s performance, noting that it’s design isn’t very good. First he notes that the amplifier chip is a Texas TL592B two stage video amplifier which isn’t that great for this application. His measurements show an OIP3 of 20dBm, a P1 saturation of -3dBm and a noise figure of 12dB.

Of interest, he explains that the creator of this loop has designed it poorly as the impedance match of the loop to low pass filter is very wrong, resulting in a very poor amplitude/frequency response. He shows how the response can be improved with a few termination resistors, but is still not great.[…]

Click here to read the full article at RTL-SDR.com.

 

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David reviews and compares the MLA-30 magnetic loop antenna

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, David Day (N1DAY), who has completed a thorough review of the MLA-30 loop antenna. In this review, he compares the MLA to the Wellbrook ALA1530-LF and a 30 foot square ground loop antenna.

In short, he finds that the MLA-30 performs fairly well on the AM broadcast/mediumwave band, but can’t compete with the Wellbrook otherwise–especially in terms of noise floor. David also noted that “the MLA-30 had a very serious issue with IMD and in some cases, stations that were clearly heard with both the Wellbrook and the ground loop were totally obliterated by IMD when switching to the MLA-30.”.

Click here to read David’s full review on his blog, Ham Signal. 

Click here to view the MLA-30 on eBay.

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