Foundations of Amateur Radio

The quest for the perfect antenna is likely to be one of the things that you'll carry with you during your entire Amateur life. In the past I've explained how the perfect antenna cannot exist and that the amount of variation inside just one antenna is infinite, so there is lots to choose from.

One of my friends loaned me an antenna called an Alex-Loop. It's a so-called Magnetic-Loop Antenna and while the physics of the antenna is fascinating, I'm not going to go into it today. Suffice to say that there are hundreds of articles on the subject on-line and if you do dive in, read at least 20 or so before you decide that you understand how it works or how to build one.

Until I used the Alex-Loop, I'd been using antennas that are set-up for a single band, or ones that require switching between bands, or using long-wire antennas with an SGC antenna matching unit. I've also used so-called antenna tuners, a topic worthy of discussion some other time.

When you use your radio to pick a frequency, so too do you pick an antenna setting with a magnetic loop. In this case, the user-interface is a knob that changes a variable capacitor to make the antenna match between 7 MHz and 30 MHz. As I said, I'm not going into the physics of this, but the outcome of turning the knob is that at one point for each frequency, the sound coming from the radio will peak.

As you turn the knob on the radio, you also turn the knob on the antenna. The two go hand-in-hand and the experience is a pretty satisfying one. No need to switch bands, get out of your operating position, change the band on your antenna, or switch a coax switch to another antenna, or transmit to make the antenna matching unit do it's thing, or to peak the antenna tuner, nothing like that, just a simple turn of the dial will get you to where you need to go.

The reason I'm discussing this is because it's the first antenna I've used, and I have played with hundreds of them, that is able to match the user experience of turning the dial on your radio with turning the dial on your antenna.

So far, operating from my QTH, where the noise is an abysmal S9, I managed one contact, which I have to tell you was great. It wasn't earth shattering, not even that far or noteworthy, but as contacts go, it was very satisfying.

Hopefully in the not too distant future I'll be able to find some time and go to a more RF quiet location and have some more fun.

I'm Onno VK6FLAB