Ciro Mazzoni loops run from $1,800-$2,500 at DX engineering. They seem
to use direct in place of inductive coupling. The automated tuning is
cool, but requires a control cable to the antenna as well as coax. My
experience with MFJ resembles Morgan's, I wouldn't call them junk but
they don't stand up well outdoors. SML's, if the loop plane is
vertical, tend to be insensitive to ground [i.e. height AGL] and
surrounding objects if their permeability is close to 1.0. My
permeability must be close to 1.0 because I sit under it and can reach
up and tune it, and my presence doesn't seem to affect it. The Alexloop
Walkham has a reduction gear on the capacitor but it's not enough and
below 20 m the adjustment gets very touchy.
My HOA antenna is a WOOF [Wire On Organic Fence], a 135' wire strung on
plastic electric fence insulators on a wooden fence, about 6' AGL, and
end fed through a 9:1 autotransformer. Works all HF bands, good for a
KW [I run a K3/100], and runs circles around the Alexloop. See
myantennas.com
There is another disadvantage to portable mag loops ... in a public
place, you may find yourself speaking with a law officer, it seems there
a number of folks that will call the cops on on the guy with headphones
sitting at the picnic table in the park.😉
73,
Fred ["Skip"] K6DGW
Sparks NV DM09dn
Washoe County
On 1/18/2021 3:38 PM, Morgan Bailey wrote:
They are unreliable pieces of junk. The housing does not protect the
capacitors that are in house made and bugs can crawl into the housing and
short them out. Secondly, the plastic housing in Kansas will be destroyed
by the sun. The best thing about the loop is the loop itself. It is built
well. The caps are cheap. Tuning the bastard is not consistent, not fast,
and highly touchy. The only loop worth purchasing is the Ciro Mazzoni loop
from Italy sold by DX engineering. It will take abuse and has an excellent
tuning feature that will follow your radio. Each time you change freq with
the MFJ it is a task to get it to tune again. A friend of mine bought one
and it was soon offered to me for $100. Then he became so frustrated with
it that he wanted me to take it for free if I would dig the post out of the
ground he mounted it on. I Passed knowing that any dipole would blow it
away. Even an end fed random wire will beat it in performance if put up
right. In the end there are many cheaper options that work far better than
the MFJ mag loop.
73,
Morgan NJ8M
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