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The next step in my Alexloop tests is the bandwidth in which the loop has. Again the antenna is mounted in a bedroom/office on the second floor of the house so that may have some affect on the SWR. I do plan on getting the loop in the out doors were the ceiling, walls and surrounding furniture do not have an affect on the loop. Below is the bandwidth results.
28.004 (SWR at 2.2) to 28.060 (SWR at 2.1) around 60 Khz of bandwidth.
21.020 (SWR at 2.0) to 21.070 (SWR at 1.7) around 50Khz of bandwidth
14.000 (SWR at 2.1) to 14.035 (SWR at 1.9) around 35Khz of bandwidth
10.110 (SWR at 1.8) to 10.125 (SWR at 1.9) around 15Khz of bandwidth
  7.005 (SWR at 2.5) to 7.015 (SWR at 2.6) around 10Khz of bandwidth
 I did however use the ATU on the KX3 and the SWR was flat when used on all bands so if I want I can use the tuner and increase the bandwidth of the antenna. I do know that my attic dipole on 10Mhz the SWR is about 9.1 to 1 and the tuner will flatten that out and I have made lots of milli watt contacts all over the world. So the next step is to get this antenna out doors and give it a whirl out there and see how it does.

The new Alexloop antenna

Just over 2 weeks ago I placed an order for the Alexloop,  For some time I have been debating what antenna to use when I was out and about with my KX3. I looked at the Miracle whip, Par end fedz antennas and the Alexloop. For my needs it boiled down to the Alexloop. I did have a miracle whip in the past and it is a great antenna but just not worth the money for the performance you get. The Alexloop was ordered and arrived within a week and a half!! I was very impressed with the reviews online and the testimonials at Eham. . The antenna comes in a very well made carry case that can be taken into the field with all parts contained for your setup......well almost all parts...a tripod is one of the recommend ways to setup the antenna for field work. There are other ways it can be deployed including holding it by hand (not as young as I used to be so this method my not work for me). You can clamp it to a pic-nick table or attach it to a chair....just for starters.  The unit cost's 299.00 and I will say this is not cheap but it's very well made and portable as well. The case that holds the unit is about 1.5 by 1 foot in total. I also want to add that the case is very well made with a shoulder strap and carry handle.

A quality case

So lets get to the nuts and bolts.....how does it work....sure anyone can say anything about their antenna but the proof is in the radio waves!!

Antenna location..cat standing guard

I wanted to do a comparison between my attic dipole which is the Alpha Delta DX-EE up about 30 feet in the attic and the Alexloop set up in my XYL's office just opposite my radio room. Let me state that this is not a comparison to see which antenna preforms better as that is not a fair comparison....but I wanted to see how well the loop did compared to my attic dipole. The Alexloop was mounted on a tripod....well ty-wrapped to it as the the Alexloop would not fit over the tripod center pole section. This is something I will have to work out later. Each of these antennas have their disadvantages....the dipole is in the attic, this means a wooden roof above, rafters all over and insulation below. The Alexloop is in a second floor room, it's a small loop antenna and very close to the ceiling. So really both antenna are far from ideal when it comes to location.

Temp tripod mount

For the rig I used my Elecraft KX3 (as this is the rig I will be using when in the parks, backyard and where ever else I decide to go!) The power output was set to 5 watts and the bands I chose were 20m and 40m. The plan was to run coax from the Alexloop to a 2 position antenna switch and switch between the two antennas. The Alexloop did not seem to take a liking to the added coax. I was not able to get the SWR down below 2. Once I used the length of coax that came with the loop (about 10 feet) all was well. This just meant I was going to have to connect and disconnect the KX3 from one antenna to the other for the comparison. I was calling  CQ on 14.060 and 7.020 on the attic dipole and call CQ on 14.050 and 7.032 on the Alexloop and check out the Reverse beacon network to see who was picking up the CQ call. Not sure if the conditions were not all that great but both on 20m and 40m the attic dipole just got hits in the U.S as did the Alexloop. There was one big surprise when the Alexloop had a hit with OL5Q (along with the attic dipole) I was very impressed that a loop antenna in a bedroom was able to get a report from OL5Q!!
My overall impressions of the Alexloop are as follows:
1. Shipping was fantastic, this antenna got here from South America faster than products I have ordered from the U.S.
2. The support is great, I had a question about the loop when it arrived and it was answered within 30 minutes!!!!
3. This unit is quality quality quality from the carry case to antenna!!
4. The tuning was a cinch, turn for peak noise and then transmit and tune for lowest SWR....takes about 20 seconds!

14.060, 7.032 Alexloop

5. Assembly is done in 4 minutes for a first timer and I imagine with practice I can cut that time in half.
6. Antenna foot print is very low profile and can be used vertical or horizontal.
7. The SWR on 20m and 40m (only bands used so far) was 1.4 at 14.060 and 1.7 at 7.032.
The bottom line is I am very very impressed with this antenna and I will be taking it to the field and updating the blog on how it does.  Up to this point would I recommend this antenna.......dam right I would it's support is excellent, quality of the product is way above par and so far the results have been very impressive.
 

The IMac and KX3

For those of you who are regular readers of my blog know that I run an Elecraft K3 along with Windows XP programs. I also have the Elecraft KX3 that runs on Mac programs. My eyes were sure opened up to the software programs out there for ham's running on Mac machines. I will admit for this long time Windows user getting the swing of Mac took some time.....and I am not done learning as of yet! My wife Julie is very much into photography she has a Mac pro laptop and did have the IMac desktop PC. Some months ago she felt it

Downsizing

was time to part with the IMac. I simply walked the IMac down the hall to my shack and hooked the KX3 up and thus began the Mac adventure. Julie since then has been taking some evening College course's in photography, this has put a flame to her picture taking!  As they say " to make a long story short" the IMac has found it's former home in Julie's office down the hall. I am now a strict Windows ham again! It sure was a fun ride and maybe in time the funds will come in to get a Mac of my own.

Oliver is keeping an eye on things

I was on the radio this afternoon and not much was on the WARC bands   (CW contesting on the other bands) it was time to spin my chair 180 degrees to the project desk. I am in the process of building another Elecraft K2 that when done will be put up for sale. This was supposed to be a winter project but the bands were busy and I was on the radio and not the soldering iron. Now the K2 build has become a spring project. A few years ago if I was asked about kit building I would not ever considered it....BUT...I have been bitten by the bug!! Along with my QRP and QRPp operating I also find kit building to be a very relaxing way to spend time. There are some kits which I have sold such as my Elecraft KX1 and

Control board completed Some tricky lead forming

LP-Pan. Funny thing is after building something you attach a personal ownership to it that over the counter commercial equipment does not have. I have sold many items purchased but not built and thought nothing of it (other than it was money to get another kit with...maybe time for kit builders anonymous). As for the kits when it came time to say goodbye to make some coin it took some thought before they were put up for sale.
As was said I am in the process of building another Elecraft K2 and I have another blog that deals with the build. I wanted to blog the progress but also highlight other areas such as toroid winding, what was needed to be a kit builder and so on. There are specific posts about the K2 build it self making mention of tricky sections of the build and how it was handled. It's now time to see if the bands have come alive!!

No time to do lots

There was many things to get done this evening (far from being done) and not much time to do them. I had emails to answer, two reviews to write for Eham, get some radio time in and post on the blog! So I was shocked this evening to find 20m alive and well. The wind has died down out this way and that means the 230kv lines outside the house had stopped moving about. They sure were giving me loads of interference right across the band. That is for another days blogging complete with YouTube action as well. This evening I first ran across 9A2N from Croatia  and his signal ranged from S4 to S7. I gave him a go with 1 watt, then 2 watts but I was able to make the contact with 3 watts.

 I  then found LZ833MBB...how is that for a call!!! This call is a special event station call and is in honour of Bulgarian Saint Martyr Knyaz Boyan Bylgarski.. I was able to work this Bulgarian club with just 1 watt.
Finally I moved on to 9A7R who is from Croatia as well and again got my contact in with just 1 watt. This evening the high flux and sunspot numbers sure are starting to pay off. I am going to have to get in on the action again tomorrow but for now it's off to other items on the check list.

So here we are....it's the weekend and time to get some radio time in as during the week I find it very hard to get into the shack once all the household chores are done. I have been trying to get a good score for the Marathon challenge this weekend. It is a QRP type challenge that involves you contacting stations via the lowest possible QRP power. I have come to learn that if the station you contact is also QRP you get more bang for the buck when it comes to scoring in this challenge. This leads me to my post today......I have been hanging out at the QRP calling frequencies and on 10m, 15m and 20m there has been lots of action. Now the action I speak of is not a QRP station calling CQ BUT  stations who is in a QRP contest calling CQ contest on QRP calling frequencies!! Maybe I am way off base here but.....a little bird in my head is telling me that this is not right. What's your feedback...if you are QRP is it good to call CQ as well as CQ contest on QRP calling frequencies??

I have seen the flux and sunspot numbers on the rise throughout the week and have been wanting to get on the radio to test the waters! This weekend I have decided to join in on the QRP DX Marathon than runs for the month of April. Fellow blogger Larry W2LJ is also involved in the Marathon and has posted great results. This is a QRP event were you are allowed make contacts using anywhere from 1 watt to 5 watts. There is a formula at the Marathon site that allows you to figure out your miles per watt. What makes this event a challenge is formula that is used to come up with your miles per watt. It seems to me that not only is your QRP power taken into the mix but the station you are contacting also counts toward your miles per watt outcome. So if you have a QRP to QRP contact then you earn a higher score. I found this out the hard way yesterday when I made contact with SP8FHK from Poland with 1 watt...but he was running 1KW and that really hurt my score!! At this point I am number 23.
Today I am at it again but so far no luck, I have been finding stations such as F7HKA, HB9TN and IK5ZWU all on 24 mhz but no luck in contacting them. I start out calling them at 1 watt and move my way up to 5 watts. I have not been able to hit the 5 watt level as they seem to fade into the noise level before then. The day is still young and opportunity awaits me on the bands.