{"id":44722,"date":"2020-08-09T08:49:19","date_gmt":"2020-08-09T12:49:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=44722"},"modified":"2020-08-09T08:49:19","modified_gmt":"2020-08-09T12:49:19","slug":"jorges-portable-youloop-antenna-frame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2020\/08\/jorges-portable-youloop-antenna-frame\/","title":{"rendered":"Jorge&#8217;s Portable YouLoop Antenna Frame"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Jorge Garz\u00f3n (EB7EFA \u00b7 EA1036 SWL), who shares the following guest post which was originally published on his <a href=\"https:\/\/iberiadx.wordpress.com\/2020\/08\/06\/bricodx-a-youloop-portable-frame\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@IberiaDX blog<\/a>:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h1>BricoDX: A YouLoop portable frame<\/h1>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><strong>by Jorge Garz\u00f3n (EB7EFA \u00b7 EA1036 SWL)<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_44723\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/youloop_1-e1596975251287.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-44723\" class=\"wp-image-44723 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/youloop_1-e1596975251287.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"526\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-44723\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Youloop \u2018in the forest\u2019<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify\">One of the\u00a0aerials I wanted to test was the Youssef Loop (YouLoop). I own a good passive loop antenna made by Tecsun (AN-200) but this is a mini one to use with portable receivers. A video showing the test of this \u2018mini-loop\u2019 can be seen in my\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/tM52f9K-ugY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">YouTube channel<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"625\" height=\"352\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tM52f9K-ugY?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify\">My main loop for serious DXing is the Wellbrook 1530LN, but this is an active loop that easily beats any other passive ones. It\u2019s close to be the perfect loop for me as I live in a rural valley with low noise level in the bands so I enjoy every minute of my listening sessions. However I wanted to test this newcomer passive loop, but wasn\u2019t satisfied just hanging it from a pine tree branch, so I decided to bring about my DIY YouLoop portable frame project.<\/p>\n<p>So I had to find something to get a rigid (but light) support for the loop itself allowing an easy rotation to achieve deep nulls. So\u2026 what could I built?<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_44724\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/youloop-top_bottom_cross-e1596975730176.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-44724\" class=\"size-full wp-image-44724\" src=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/youloop-top_bottom_cross-e1596975730176.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"267\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-44724\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fiberglass tubes, hooks and crossed arms.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I am professionally involved in the heritage and communication sector, so was easy for me to refit some dismissed display rolls where I found a 1,5 m thin supporting tube made in fiberglass that suited my needs. I cut a piece of 120 cm and then split it into 2x60cm, tightening both in the middle with a fine bolt. I placed two plastic hooks up and down of the vertical tube to hold both Youloop modules. The horizontal arm was lengthened with two bamboo meat skewers firmly inserted into the tube, allowing to slide onto it. Two small holes in the bamboo pieces were good enough to secure the cable with a short wire. All this was well fixed with clamps and vulcanized tape to an extra piece of vertical tube.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_44725\" style=\"width: 466px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/youloop_arm.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-44725\" class=\"size-full wp-image-44725\" src=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/youloop_arm.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"456\" height=\"281\" srcset=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/youloop_arm.jpg 456w, https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/youloop_arm-300x185.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 456px) 100vw, 456px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-44725\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bamboo meat skewer and tied cable.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Finally all this was inserted into a thicker aluminium tube and then into a wider one in order to fit everything into the tripod hole and then get a smooth and efficient rotation of the antenna. As a base I re-fitted an old heavy metallic tripod manufactured by Manfrotto (Italy) that I used it often for birdwatching day trips. I gave back an unexpected new life for this piece of metal, always in the field close to Nature!<\/p>\n<p>The whole assembly can be easily transported in the car. Aluminium tubes slide one into the other, being rapidly detachable from the loop itself. This is a cheap and DIY project to get the maximum of this surprising and low noise passive loop.<\/p>\n<p>This aerial gives its best performance when used in the field. There, QRM levels are low or non existent at all. It is a must to rotate it easily and then get sharp nulls. SMA connector nuts must be well tightened as they tend to loosen easily, but beware to force them as an extra twisting could damage inner connections.<\/p>\n<p><b>This is the first post of a series called \u00abBricoDX\u00bb where I will show how to refit or build accessories to get inexpensive and practical DIY projects for our listening sessions.<\/b><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em><strong>Many thanks for sharing your article with us, Jorge! That&#8217;s a brilliant loop support.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Readers: check out more of Jorge&#8217;s articles on his blog, <a href=\"https:\/\/iberiadx.wordpress.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@IberiaDX<\/a>. Also check out <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/tM52f9K-ugY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">his YouTube channel<\/a> where he posts videos.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Jorge Garz\u00f3n (EB7EFA \u00b7 EA1036 SWL), who shares the following guest post which was originally published on his @IberiaDX blog: BricoDX: A YouLoop portable frame by Jorge Garz\u00f3n (EB7EFA \u00b7 EA1036 SWL) One of the\u00a0aerials I wanted to test was the Youssef Loop (YouLoop). I own a good passive [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3607,3194,627,3,43],"tags":[8353,8732,8413,8412,34,8584],"class_list":["post-44722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-antennas","category-guest-posts","category-how-to","category-news","category-shortwave-radio","tag-airspy-youloop","tag-jorge-garzon-eb7efa-ea1036-swl","tag-ncpl-antenna","tag-noise-cancelling-passive-loop-antenna","tag-shortwave","tag-youloop"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pn3uc-bDk","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":42174,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2020\/03\/airspy-youloop-and-homebrew-passive-loop-antenna-designs\/","url_meta":{"origin":44722,"position":0},"title":"Airspy Youloop and Homebrew Passive Loop Antenna designs","author":"Thomas","date":"March 10, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Almost two weeks ago, at the 2020 Winter SWL Fest, I gave a presentation called \"A New Era in Portable SDR DXing.\" The presentation was essentially an in-depth version of an article I published in the January 2020 issue of The Spectrum Monitor magazine (see cover above). I devoted a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Accessories&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Accessories","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/accessories\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Youloop-prototype-e1583854322268.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Youloop-prototype-e1583854322268.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Youloop-prototype-e1583854322268.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":42582,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2020\/03\/the-airspy-youloop-is-a-freaking-brilliant-passive-loop-antenna\/","url_meta":{"origin":44722,"position":1},"title":"The Airspy Youloop is a freaking brilliant passive loop antenna","author":"Thomas","date":"March 30, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Before I start talking Youloop, I have a little confession to make up front: At the Winter SWL Fest when I gave a presentation about Portable SDR DXing, not only did I give attendees the wrong name of the Airspy Youloop antenna, but I also configured it incorrectly, hence the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Antennas&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Antennas","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/antennas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Red-Oxx-Lil-Roy.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Red-Oxx-Lil-Roy.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Red-Oxx-Lil-Roy.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Red-Oxx-Lil-Roy.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":51178,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2021\/12\/airspy-hf-discovery-shortwave-portables-having-fun-with-the-airspy-youloop\/","url_meta":{"origin":44722,"position":2},"title":"Airspy HF+ Discovery &#038; Shortwave Portables: Having Fun with the Airspy YouLoop!","author":"Thomas","date":"December 14, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"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.\u00a0 While I have strung up some hidden outdoor wire antennas, I have found that they didn\u2019t really perform that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Antennas&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Antennas","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/antennas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Screen-Shot-2021-12-14-at-06.15.01.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Screen-Shot-2021-12-14-at-06.15.01.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Screen-Shot-2021-12-14-at-06.15.01.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":42416,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2020\/03\/airspy-youloop-passive-magnetic-loop-antenna-now-shipping\/","url_meta":{"origin":44722,"position":3},"title":"AirSpy YouLoop passive magnetic loop antenna now shipping","author":"Thomas","date":"March 20, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Michael Agner (KA3JJZ), who notes that AirSpy\u00a0 now has the YouLoop passive mag loop antenna posted on their retail websites.\u00a0 You can grab one for $30 - $35 US, depending on your location. That's a fantastic deal in my book. Click here to check\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;New Products&quot;","block_context":{"text":"New Products","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/new-products\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/YouLoop-Coax.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":44834,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2020\/08\/bruce-compares-two-homebrew-ncpl-antennas-to-the-airspy-youloop\/","url_meta":{"origin":44722,"position":4},"title":"Bruce compares two homebrew NCPL antennas to the Airspy Youloop","author":"Thomas","date":"August 16, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bruce (VE3EAR), who writes: I decided that more testing of the Noise-Cancelling Passive Loop (YouLoop) antenna was needed, but I wanted to start with a clean page. I built two identical loops using some 3\/8 inch heliax scraps I had on hand. Both are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Antennas&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Antennas","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/antennas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/YouLoop2.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/YouLoop2.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/YouLoop2.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":44073,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/rob-reviews-the-airspy-youloop-antenna\/","url_meta":{"origin":44722,"position":5},"title":"Rob reviews the AirSpy YouLoop antenna","author":"Thomas","date":"June 29, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Rob, who writes: Thank you for your informative blog. As a longtime SWLer I enjoy reading up on your posts. A few months ago I was considering the purchase of a magnetic loop antenna. Based on your \"YouLoop is a freaking brilliant passive loop\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Accessories&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Accessories","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/accessories\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/YouLoop-Coax.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44722\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}