Welcome to the new FlexRadio Community! Please review the new Community Rules and other important new Community information on the Message Board.
If you are having a problem, please refer to the product documentation or check the Help Center for known solutions.
Need technical support from FlexRadio? It's as simple as Creating a HelpDesk ticket.

Anyone using a W6LVP loop?

Options
N8FNR
N8FNR Member ✭✭
I was wondering if anyone here is using one of the loop antennas from W6LVP. If so how well does it work for you on VLF, LF, 160, 80 and 40? BTW I am running a Flex-6400.

Zack
N8FNR

Answers

  • lriehlou812 .
    lriehlou812 . Member
    edited May 2019
    Options
    I am using one. Up until a few days ago, I would have sold the one I bought to you for cheap. However, I must have been picking up some noise where the loop was located. I had mounted it on a pole next to my house, between another house next door(about 15ft away). I was picking up what I would describe as power line noise. Especially noticeable on 160m. I also pick up this noise on my horizontal loop(450ft around the property). 

    I bought the W6LVP loop to quiet down my receive, and was disappointed as I was unable to null out the noise no matter how I turned the loop.

    If you get one, don't give up and you probably like me upon first installation might be discouraged. What I did, was put about another 100ft of RG6 on the end and have my son walk around the yard with it until I was able to find a quiet spot(and still hear signals). I was not able to mount the loop at the most optimum location, but I was able to get it close. 

    Right now on 80m with the W6LVP loop antenna I have a noise level of S3 on average and I can hear signals in St. Louis MO in the middle of a thunderstorm. My loop around the property has a S8 noise level.

    My 450ft loop I believe loaded up the receiver too much, and it would be difficult to set my AGC as I would have to drop the slider on 80m to about 10-20. With Larry's loop it usually stays at about 50. 160m on the 450ft loop was impossible to listen to. I just checked average S reading on 160 is an S9 and has that noise infused into it. On Larry's loop S5, and the signals just pop on the scope.

    So I am now very pleased with my purchase, and Larry's support is top notch.

    Thanks
    another Larry(K0FET)
  • Dan Trainor
    Dan Trainor Member ✭✭✭
    edited May 2019
    Options

    I have the W6LVP RX Loop and found it to have good performance over a wide band. I have mine mounted on a tripod in the back yard away from the house and about 6ft above the ground. At present, I have it hooked up to an SDRPlay RSP2 RX, so I can run SDRUno  panadapter SW which has many more advantaged features than SSDR does, including advanced FFT signal processing, NR and CW APF and many more features.  But, I digress...  The W6LVP active loop has a high quality broadband preamp and the loop has a remarkably good S/N ratio and if you orient the loop in the right way you can null out some noise as well.  Mnay many SWL listeners buy and use this antenna. Soon I will connect, with a TR switch, it to the Flex 6400 RX input, but then I lose the superb panaadpter capabilities of SDRUno.  A tradeoff. dan

Leave a Comment

Rich Text Editor. To edit a paragraph's style, hit tab to get to the paragraph menu. From there you will be able to pick one style. Nothing defaults to paragraph. An inline formatting menu will show up when you select text. Hit tab to get into that menu. Some elements, such as rich link embeds, images, loading indicators, and error messages may get inserted into the editor. You may navigate to these using the arrow keys inside of the editor and delete them with the delete or backspace key.