The Gentleman's Band is for you!!

Hello all.  Well, CQ Worldwide 2018 CW is now history.  The activity was fast and furious.  The big guns were pounding the keys and generating big numbers.  They know who they are and if you were listening, then you know who they are.  The rest of us "normal" people are happy to make a bunch of QSO's, and perhaps add a new country, mode and/or band to our log.

Necessity is the mother of invention, and so I must tell  you how I discovered something pretty darn amazing.

Saturday evening I began operating on 80m.  The atmospheric noise was loud, and making QSO's was not a breeze.  I was a little despondent, then I decided to take out 15 minutes and do something I had not done to improve reception.

A few years ago, I purchased a magnetic loop antenna for receiving because of the noise that was relentless in my area.  Since then for some unknown reason things have actually gotten quite quiet here.  No longer do I have S5 noise that won't go away.  However, at the time, I did a little research and saw some good reports on using a magnetic loop for receive. 

So I ended up purchasing a Wellbrook magnetic loop without the loop.  How do you use a receiving loop without the loop?  Actually you don't, but there was no way I was going to ship the whole thing to Israel from England, so I bought just the "guts."  Someone traveling brought the parts and "active" amplifier unit, and making the loop was up to me.

A Wellbrook box and loop antenna

Fortunately, there is a nice aluminum supplier in Tel Aviv that has all different size tubes.  I loaded up a 6m long tube on top of my truck and drove all the way back to my home QTH (about 15 miles away) with the tube bouncing and swaying in the wind.  But we made it!

Once home, I proceeded to bend the tube, not into a loop, but into a square.  My square "loop" is actually larger than the original round loop, and the chief at Wellbrook actually thought that my square loop would have some advantages over the smaller round loop.  I put it all together and prepared myself for magical receive capabilities.

Then the truth hit.  On the upper bands, the loop is a wash.  In fact, I didn't expect great results on the upper bands, but I did hope for lower noise...but not so much of an advantage there.  Granted, the ideal location for a magnetic loop is close to the ground and away from structures.  The truth was that I was really looking for a big improvement on 80m.  To this end, 80m turned out to be okay.  In some orientations, the magnetic loop does provide noise reduction and better ears on 80m, and that is why I set it up for the CQ WW CW  on last Saturday night.  It was an experiment, and I did not intend to work the whole contest using the loop for receive, but it did prove that 80m with the loop can have some advantages.



All of this is a preamble, because the real story here is all about TOP BAND, 160m.  For a little fun, I had set up my Wellbrook loop with my SDRplay and the receiver.  I also installed the latest SDRuno software complete the receiver setup.  The loop was put up on a small mast on my 3rd floor patio and all was set up as required.  The loop had not been used in about 18 months, so I had no clue as to what to expect, but the rainwater leaking from the aluminum tube did not inspire confidence.

So, with the software SDRuno up and running I first checked 80m, then, just for fun, I tuned to 160m around 1.820 mhz.  The SDRuno software shows you a user-defined chunk of the band.  Let me tell you that the audio was nothing short of astounding.  160m was absolutely pristine.  The signals were well-defined, and band noise was minimal.  It was absolutely unbelievable.  If you would like to see the SDRuno video, press here.

A screenshot of the SDRuno software

I immediately committed myself to figuring out some way to put together a 160m transmitting antenna.  The receiver for the "Gentleman's Band" is hands down going to be the Wellbrook magnetic receiving loop.  I cannot describe to you how wonderful the receive audio was with this antenna.   No doubt, coming up with a 160m tx antenna is not easily solved if you are limited in space.  However, there are vertical solutions and perhaps other wire antenna solutions that will give you some level of TX ability on Top Band.  Maybe in a future blog I will explore 160m transmitting antennas.  For now, suffice it to say that the receiving issues like high noise levels are (in my opinion), significantly improved with the use of a receiving loop. 

Keep in mind that you must try to locate the receiving loop away from the TX antenna.  You can NEVER transmit into the receiving loop or you will destroy the electronics in the amplifier box.   You could experiment with a separate receiver, or to run the loop to your computer directly with an SDRplay or similar computer-based receiver in between the antenna and the computer.  Your results may vary, and the best setup needs to be determined based on your particular rig situation.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EPLO-b0a-Q

The above link will take you to a youtube video by Z33T, Mike Kokotov using SDRuno to listen to 80m.  You will see the spectrum display and hear the clear signals.

I always thought that 160m is out of reach, and whenever I would tune a compromise antenna on Top Band, all I would hear would be a lot of noise that was just too difficult to work around.  Following my test on Saturday evening (November 24, 2018), I am determined to give the Gentleman's Band a go.  Next is to solve the transmitting antenna problem.

73 for now, Mark 4x1ks