AmateurRadio.com

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.
 

Monday was a holiday here in Ontario called family day Julie is taking some photography course's and with that comes homework. Today she had to get out side and take some pictures we came up with the idea of a raptor bird sanctuary not to far from home. I also got to thinking that while she was snapping I could be dahing and ditting on my KX3!! This was a win win for the two of us we were out spending time with each other (kinda) and doing our hobby's  to boot. My setup was the Elecraft KX3, mobile whip on a diamond trunk lip mount. The temperatures outside were way to cold for me to venture out. During the evening it dropped to -17C and during the day was up to -10C. I opted to stay in the car with the sun shinning in it was very comfee and a little to warm at times. We were there for about 2 hours, I was able to make just one contact. But it's all about having fun with the radio and getting out. Joe W2KJ is from North Carolina and was also running a KX3 (my first KX3 to KX3 QRP QSO) at 4 watts. I found Joe calling CQ on the 20m QRP frequency. We gave each other 559 reports and some antenna info, name, QTH, power and then it was time to move on.  My KX3 being set at 1 watt gave me a miles per watt contact of 644.

So why did I title this post "To close for CW comfort" this has to do with the other CW "events" that I was exposed to! I have read about this in other blogs from other op's which are CW operators who seem for some reason to blend letters together regarding their call. I had at least 6 op's who's call I had a very very hard time making out. There was one DX station who's call ended in WVR BUT for the longest time I was not sure if it was W##, even the code reader on the KX3 was having a real hard time. I then ran across 10+ on the S meter  European station but I could not give him a call as I had (and I mean NO CLUE) what his call was!! It was very hard to tell were the CQ  stopped and the call was being sent. Now folks for any of you reading my blog and who also have had a CW QSO with me I know my code elegance has left you scratching your head at times.....but I just can't understand how code that has no spaces and just runs as one long word how these op's ever get answers to their CQ requests.
When I got home I put my Elecraft k3 into test mode (meaning no code is sent over the air) and tried to send some sloppy code and watched to see if the K3 was able to decode. (you can setup the K3 to not only show incoming code but also your code as you send it) The only reading the K3 would give me were not letters or numbers just lots of  *****......translation...the K3 also has no idea. As with most CW op's out there you also have your code being sent to you through  your headphones. Does the code not sound odd to these op's???
Anyway time to get off my soapbox now.............

It came with all this

 Julie has lots AA batteries she uses and most if not all are rechargeable and she has been up to this point just using a cheap wall charger. There has been many times when these AA batteries have let her down with regard to her flashes. I was online and found some nice chargers the one I decided to purchase was the LA Crosse BC 1000 . This sure is a gem of a charger and for the price 60.00 shipping included at Amazon.ca as well it came in 2 days via UPS. From the picture above you can see the unit came with a carry case, wall adapter, 4 AA 2600mAh, 4 AA 1000mAh, provision to charge D and C cell batteries and finally the
unit....not bad for 60.00 and 2 day shipping to boot.
So what is so great about this charger, each cell can be charged, discharged/charged, refresh/charge or finally test/charge. Each cell can have it's own custom type of charge done to it. The charging rates can chosen from 200mA to 1800mA and again each cell can have it's own charge rate. The unit will let you

Charge and test mod results

TEST/CHARGE complete

know if the cell is defective and will not charge or allow the batteries to overheat. Once the charging is complete it goes to trickle charge. At this time you have access to the voltage of each cell, the capacity of the cell in mAh's, how long the charge time was and depending on the charge mod you chose other info as well. You can also charge different battery sizes at the same time and again program what type of charge you wold like for each cell. So I put Julies AA cells to the TEST!! As they were charging I could see at least one cell that was getting a failing grade at only 120mAh for a 2600mAh battery not good. I am running all her batteries through the test/charge and will dispose of the cells that don't cut it. I have my Elecraft KX3 with the Ansmann AA batteries and will be using this charger too look after those batteries. Now speaking of Elecraft I did purchase there internal battery charger. I have to admit I was disappointed that up to this point the software has not been introduced to trickle charge the AA cells, offer selectable mAh charge rates and so on. Think I may just use the LA Crosse and if I do then end up selling the internal charger. Live and learn I guess......anyway back to the subject at hand......up to this point many of Julies batteries have not met with a passing mark and have been tossed.
With this charger you are able to get the most out of your not so cheap rechargeable batteries and make your hard earned money go as far as it can.

And the testing goes on

Yesterday when I got home from my failed out door op's adventure with KX3 I found out what I did. It was operator error on my part. The night before I failed to understand the KX3 charging procedure fully and I was rushing to get the battery charged for the next day. I thought I had put the batteries on a 16 hour charge by misunderstanding the simple procedure I inadvertently stopped the charge cycle. So in the morning I did try my KX3 on battery power and it did  not work but I discovered in the manual that the radio power on thresh hold had to be lowered when using NiMH batteries. I did this and the KX3 came to life. Little did I know that was all the life the batteries had in

It's charging!!

them most likely a very small factory charge.....Yesterday when I got home I looked over the instructions this time more slowly. As I went through each step at the end a time count down appeared along with "BAT CHG". I never saw this the night before! This meant is was WORKING and charging. New next few day here the temps are
going to rise into the +12C or more so I may take my KX3 into work and maybe get on 40m in the morning before I start work.
Today was a snow day for me here at VE3WDM we had a large and non forecast snow fall last night. I have over an hours drive to work on a good day and when I went out to the car at my normal 4 a.m ( not a spelling error yes 4.am) funny I call it the morning and others in my family call it the middle of the night.....I digress.....It was snowing like crazy and I did try to make it in but no roads were not cleared so it was to dangerous.
I got on the radio for some time today and snagged me some QRPp contacts. On 15m this morning I  heard Rudy IK4VFD calling CQ. He was in and out at times but I gave him a go with 500mW's of  K3 power and I got through to him!! He gave me a 539 report and did not seem to have any trouble getting through our exchange of QTH, Name, RST and a few pleasantries. I sent Rudy an email with more info about my station and the power that I was running as at the time I told him it was QRP. He got back to me with an email thanking me for our QSO. So that contact was 8467 miles per watt!!

I then found F9IE calling CQ from France and it sounded like he was just outside my window. So it was time to switch in the Hendricks attenuator and drop my power down to 150mW's. It took a few calls but Bernard was able to give me a report of 449 along with EU-064 as he is on Noirmoutier Island to boot!! So that contact gave me 24,261 miles per watt of a contact. 

I was going through my QST this week an had notice an add for a new antenna by SteppIR. In the past I would had just passed by the add but this antenna in the picture had an eye catching look to it. It's called the CrankIR vertical and can be used from 2m to 40m or another unit that goes from 2m to 20m (an 80m unit is in the works) The antenna is great for portable ops, field day, emergency and neighborhood restricted antenna areas...and the list goes on!! For me this antenna can easily fit into a nap-sack and carried out into

Mounted on bench

 the great outdoors, placed in the truck of my Scion IQ and hauled to a park and setup at a picnic bench were I have done many a mini contest from.
So lets look at the nitty gritty of the antenna first off it's made by SteppIR who has a GREAT reputation and has been the choice of many DXpeditions. The 20m version extends to 9 feet and when folded up is only 26 inches. The 40m version is 18 feet and reduces to 30 inches. As far as I am concerned both sizes are very manageable for transporting. I am not gong to high light evey detail as there is a link on this post to the SteppIR CrankIR page with limited info but more to come!!  This antenna is due to make its purchase date in the spring of this year. I did send an email to SteppIR with some questions about the antenna and Bart was very prompt to get back to me.

My Questions were........
1. I did not notice any radials are there any? (I asked this because for portable ops sometime radials can become a pain especially if you are in a park where the public is.)
Bart's answer was.....
The antenna will be designed to work with a single, elevated, tuned radial (included) 
 The crank is for extending or retracting the element around the frame of the antenna. It does not raise/lower the antenna or support tube.

The 40 to 2m retracted

  THERE HAS BEEN SOME COMMUNICATION BETWEEN MYSELF AND STEPPIR SINCE THE POST.....IT WOULD SEEM I MISUNDERSTOOD  AN EMAIL. THE CABLE YOU SEE IN THE PICTURE DOES RAISE AND LOWER THE ANTENNA ELEMENT TO THE DESIRED BAND TO WHICH YOU WANT TO OPERATE IT'S NOT A COUNTER POISE. (MY MISTAKE) BART TOLD ME THERE IS A COUNTERPOISE THAT WILL (THIS IS THE PLAN) EXTEND AND RETRACT FROM THE BASE WITH ANTENNA AS YOU GO FROM BAND TO BAND.

Just waiting to be framed and hung on the "I love me" wall

 The Skeeter Hunt contest had it's first running this year its sponsored by the NJQRP club it was arranged and coordinated by Larry W2LJ. The theme was "My favorite place". This is a QRP contest and encourages (more contest points) home made or kit gear as well if you can come up with a home made key then your contest score will reflect this BIG TIME!!! As for VE3WDM I had kit gear (Elecraft K2) and I was operating from a park (more points for this). To make this post short and sweet I had a blast in this contest and plan on doing it next year as well.