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[IRCA] Chasing TP's with a 9' Box Loop-- October 3
Hello All,
After some mechanical refinements, the largest PVC-frame box loop made here
was finally ready for testing in actual TP-DXing this Saturday morning. A
rare break in the typical western Washington rainy season (running from
October to May :-) helped make the testing easier.
The huge loop (described in the recent PVC Loop article) turned out to be
the gain master it was created to be, providing 2 new Ultralight TP catches
during its first 10 minutes of testing. Although most of the morning was
spent testing the tuning range, nulling ability and other aspects of the
9'1" side (13' diagonal) box loop, an MP3 recording was made on 738 kHz at
1400 UTC, which not only had a strong signal from Taiwan Fisheries (the only
TP station received here on the smaller loops), but also had a decent signal
from the KBS station HLKG, and even a Mandarin Chinese station under these
two. Testing was also made on 792 kHz, a frequency that had provided
marginal reception of a weak station here on the smaller loops. The 9' box loop
clearly had Mandarin Chinese speech on the frequency at 1408, presumably
from the Shenyang station. I have no idea what the TP-DXing situation was for
others this morning, but that was the situation here (during my limited
checking).
Of course, there are tradeoffs when using a 9' sided box loop, which
typically will not fit in living rooms. Outdoor performance requires waterproof
construction (especially in western Washington), and birds are fond of using
the upper wires as a potty. The upcoming Puget Sound windstorms will
surely give adequate testing of my loop's mechanical design. With plentiful
insect life in my back yard, I found it necessary to evict a couple of large
spiders who found the PVC tubing ideal for escaping the rain. The loop will
rotate easily by the Armstrong method, although wrestling the monster to
fine-tune a null is somewhat more challenging than with the smaller loops. Of
course, using an altazimuth tilting system is out of the question with a
monster loop like this-- the DXer would surely accompany the loop and the
base to the ground at the first such foolish attempt.
Despite all the quirks, I think this huge 9' PVC box loop would thrill any
DXer fanatical (or foolish) enough to build one. As long as my neighbor
doesn't report me to the City for making it without a building permit, I'll
be happy.
73, Gary DeBock (in Puyallup, WA)
Spotting receiver: Modified ICF-2010 (30" loopstick)
Main receiver: Modified C.Crane SWP ultralight (7.5" Slider loopstick +
CFJ455K5 IF filter)
9' PVC-framed box loop (on a heavy-duty PVC base)
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