Dave, This is a good question. I have had line cords which came within inches of the antenna and did not seem problematic but a fan a foot distant was. The one thing is that you can tune in a station and try moving the antenna. I know this is not quantitative - these are just my experiences in a timber frame home.
Of course this is not a problem on top a mountain and so maybe the compensations allowed by height and being in the open compensate to a large degree for the antennas deficiencies. The Alex Loop is very portable and can be set up inside a room and it works but I had to work for most of my QSOs. The one exception being at the tail end of a contest when the big guns were hungry in the USA and I worked fourteen Ws running ten watts and the Alex Loop inside the shack. It is impractical to be separated from the Alex Loop by any distance as one needs to tune the antenna if you change frequency by more than 20 kHz or so. Still I could operate and monitor from both my sister's and brother's spare bedrooms. It is neat to be running the KX1 with four watts and work across the Atlantic with a small inside antenna - it can also require some effort. 73 Doug EI2CN P.S. QRP with my 4 element SteppIR at 24M / 80 feet is not the same as QRP with an Alex Loop and 5 Watts. _____ From: David Christ [mailto:radio...@mchsi.com] Sent: 03 November 2013 20:14 To: Doug Turnbull Cc: Elecraft Reflector Subject: Re: [Elecraft] [KX3] KX3 with Alex Loop How close is too close? David K0LUM On Nov 3, 2013, at 1:27 PM, Doug Turnbull wrote: You must be selective in where the AlexLoop is positioned; too close to some wires or metal and it may not perform as you would like. 73 Doug EI2CN ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html