The Old One was Good and the New One is Fantastic
We have owned the 10-40 meter Alpha Loop antenna for a few years and have experienced great results with it. Our daughter Hope (KM4IPF) broke through a pileup with a station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba while running 5 watts into the original Alpha Loop with an Elecraft KX3 radio.
Just prior to Hurricane Irma, we received the 40/80 meter add on for the original Alpha Loop and our daughter Grace (KM4TXT) used the antenna to check into the Hurricane Watch Net as the storm raged outside the house. The antenna was sitting on the kitchen counter. The results were quite good under those conditions.
Even though the antenna was a good performer, we were only able to use 25 watts PEP with the antenna and we wished that there were a way to run 100 watts. Fast forward to Hamcation …
We picked up the new 100 watt Alpha Loop antenna at Hamcation and ran it through its paces this weekend in the ARRL International DX Contest. Conditions were not great and there was a LOT of QRM. As Hope and Grace started trying to work some stations in the contest, I questioned whether or not the antenna would perform well enough to use in the contest. Grace started making contact after contact and my skepticism was quickly erased.
This antenna PERFORMS! I wouldn’t have expected that a mere increase from 25 watts to 100 watts would have given us the increase in performance that we experienced, but it did. The girls made contact after contact–breaking through pileups and squeezing through the heavy QRM. We shot a couple of videos of them using the antenna in the contest and put them on our Ham Radio (Dot) World YouTube channel.
The videos show how quiet the antenna is on receive as well.
If you are looking for a ultra-portable performer that doesn’t compromise your ability to run 100 watts, consider the 100 watt Alpha Loop Antenna. We will be using this one extensively in our field operations.
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Earlier review posted by WX4TV
Our kids are all hams and they received one of these antennas to try out just before Hurricane Matthew made his presence known in Central Florida. The kids have a YouTube channel and made several videos with the antenna as they put it together and tried it out. The videos can be seen here:
and
Keeping in mind that magnetic loop antennas are compromise antennas, this one works surprisingly well. It is easy to set up (as can be seen in the videos) and the kids have made many contacts on it. Even more surprisingly, the antenna performs very well on 40m.
The antenna had a couple of issues when it arrived–namely the hook and loop fasteners were broken–and the company remedied the problem. The instructions were a bit confusing for the kids and the company was receptive to their suggestions for improvements.
Are you going to get DXCC with this antenna? Possibly not. But, you will make contacts and have fun in situations where a full size antenna cannot be used. It’s a good buy.
WX4TV
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