[IRCA] Chasing TP's with a 9' Box Loop-- October 3

[D1028Gary@xxxxxxx]

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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