[HCDX] MW antenna thoughts ...

[J999w@xxxxxxx]

I crawled up from the basement listening post last night and did some antenna 
comparisons with my box loop that I normally don't use (because it's deaf in 
the basement). I compared my 3' box loop against a 85' wire that slopes up to 
the top of a 70 ft oak tree. As has always been stated,  vertical antennas are 
noisy, that's what I found too. Using just the loop on 750khz with WSB 
nulled, I could hear two different spanish stations weakly just above the noise. I 
then turned the loop so WSB was peaked, then phased them down with the wire 
(MFJ1026). The spanish stations were inaudible, only band noise was heard. The 
wire is awesome on the 60 and 90 meter tropical bands, but on MW, it's not the 
best performer. I had the gut feeling that the wire would outperform the loop 
because of the height,  but that was wrong.

I also hooked up the Palstar MW550P MW tuner that I recently purchased from 
K3PI to the box loop. With the 12 db of amplification it provides, plus the 
10db pre-amp of my modified Icom R71a, signals are simply screaming in now.  I 
had Mexico City's XEX, 730khz, S9+10db on a particularly normal night. This 
aleviates my fears that I would miss something while using the loop because it 
might not be sensitive enough. The box loop has plenty of gain now! Due to the 
natural resonance of the tuner and that of the loop, when tuned up on 730khz, my 
super-pest local station on 1290 was a mere S9 with both pre-amps on instead 
of the needle pegging signal it usually puts in, so I have no fear of images 
despite the large amount of amplification. This could be a powerful combo ... 
box loop plus Palstar preselector and I intend on putting it through it's paces 
in the comming months. Tonight, I'll take the loop outside in the yard. I've 
had better results with it out there in the past and with the pre-amps on it, 
it should really be a signal getter.

As I get my EWE's put back up in the yard, I'll make more comparison's 
against the amplified loop and report my findings.

73!

John Wilke K9RZZ
Milwaukee

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