I've been further testing my magnetic loop aerial over the last 24 hours, but haven't made any changes to the setup as such.

I did find out why, just before writing my blog yesterday, I couldn't get a good SWR reading despite doing so the day before. Rather foolishly I'd let the bare braid from one end of the RG-213 loop touch the outer contact of the phono plug to which the coupling loop connects to. Whoops! Once I'd realised that, getting a match didn't prove to difficult.

In actual fact, I think I may be getting used to tuning the aerial. I'm having very few problems setting up for 14.070MHz for PSK31 use. 7.035 doesn't match quite as well, but I can still get about 1.75:1 I'm hoping it's possible to get this better by tweaking that coupling loop - either fine tuning it's length or adjusting the shape.

Disappointingly though, I still haven't managed to make any contacts. I've been calling CQ using PSK31 on 20m and 40m, and also using SSB on 40m but to no avail. I'll keep trying but I'm not entirely sure how well my signal is getting out. The only indications I've had that I am transmitting are the appearance of markers on the PSKReporter map which indicate that a monitoring station has heard me. This has happened three times - in Sweden, Germany and Italy.

It does sound promising, but until I exchange some reports I'm really just speculating as to how well this aerial is working for transmission work.

0 comments | Related Entries: 2 | Related Links: 0 | Attachments:

Tags: amateur radio, magnetic loop aerial