prcguy
Member
Got one several days ago, where has this thing been all my life? So far there is nothing that my 130ft offset center fed 80-10m dipole can receive that the W6LVP loop cannot and the loop picks up lots of things below the AM BCB that the dipole cannot.
I have the loop on a rotor and have played with nulling AM stations, which it does better than 30dB, otherwise I mostly leave the loop pointed in an E-W direction and enjoy it. I'ts now my main HF/VLF antenna for an Icom R-8600 and a perfect complement to this high end receiver. The W6LVP loop is replacing a trapped sloping wire off the top of my tower, which was sharply tuned to a couple of amateur bands but would also pick up over 10W of energy when I light up my main HF antenna with 1,200W. Under the same conditions the loop just saturates the preamp and no dangerous levels reach the receiver and the maker of the antenna runs 1kW very close to his own loop with no damage to the loop preamp.
Prior to getting the W6LVP, I had made a 3ft dia passive shielded loop with a 4:1 balun interface that had a great null but otherwise was a bit numb on sensitivity. I tried a 15dB gain low noise HF preamp on the home made loop with some improvement, but was not thrilled with it. The W6LVP loop is a little down in level on most HF bands from my 130ft OCFD but the signal to noise seems a little better on the loop with its quieter noise floor.
I also have a high end AMRAD active 1m whip but at my location it picks up too much noise in the VLF range to be useful. In contrast the W6LVP loop is picking up lots of VLF beacons and WWVB just fine with a nice low noise floor and the loop is doing a much better job over the entire HF band compared to the AMRAD due to my noisy location.
Right after I ordered my loop the seller contacted me with some concern of a 50kW AM station near me that he researched on his own and suggested I might benefit from a notch filter for that frequency. I did some measurements on the AM station with my passive loop and OCFD and sent the results to W6LVP and he recommended the notch filter, which he installed for free. The antenna was on my roof about 10min after opening the package and I've been enjoying it ever since.
For anyone looking for an HF receive antenna of any kind I suggest you look at the W6LVP loop. Overall it works better than any passive wire SW antenna I have used like the PAR SW end fed, Alpha Delta SW sloper and full size 80-10m OCFD and it has the ability to null out noise or offending high power stations. So far I have not experience any overload of the antenna, so the preamp is plenty beefy for an urban location with lots of high power transmitters in all directions. I just can't say enough good things about this antenna and its about half the $$ of its nearest competitor.
I was so impressed with the antenna I bought the W6LVP experimental setup for travel, which is the loop preamp and power inserter and you supply your own wire for the loop. I found repeat customers get a hefty discount on the next purchase.
I have the loop on a rotor and have played with nulling AM stations, which it does better than 30dB, otherwise I mostly leave the loop pointed in an E-W direction and enjoy it. I'ts now my main HF/VLF antenna for an Icom R-8600 and a perfect complement to this high end receiver. The W6LVP loop is replacing a trapped sloping wire off the top of my tower, which was sharply tuned to a couple of amateur bands but would also pick up over 10W of energy when I light up my main HF antenna with 1,200W. Under the same conditions the loop just saturates the preamp and no dangerous levels reach the receiver and the maker of the antenna runs 1kW very close to his own loop with no damage to the loop preamp.
Prior to getting the W6LVP, I had made a 3ft dia passive shielded loop with a 4:1 balun interface that had a great null but otherwise was a bit numb on sensitivity. I tried a 15dB gain low noise HF preamp on the home made loop with some improvement, but was not thrilled with it. The W6LVP loop is a little down in level on most HF bands from my 130ft OCFD but the signal to noise seems a little better on the loop with its quieter noise floor.
I also have a high end AMRAD active 1m whip but at my location it picks up too much noise in the VLF range to be useful. In contrast the W6LVP loop is picking up lots of VLF beacons and WWVB just fine with a nice low noise floor and the loop is doing a much better job over the entire HF band compared to the AMRAD due to my noisy location.
Right after I ordered my loop the seller contacted me with some concern of a 50kW AM station near me that he researched on his own and suggested I might benefit from a notch filter for that frequency. I did some measurements on the AM station with my passive loop and OCFD and sent the results to W6LVP and he recommended the notch filter, which he installed for free. The antenna was on my roof about 10min after opening the package and I've been enjoying it ever since.
For anyone looking for an HF receive antenna of any kind I suggest you look at the W6LVP loop. Overall it works better than any passive wire SW antenna I have used like the PAR SW end fed, Alpha Delta SW sloper and full size 80-10m OCFD and it has the ability to null out noise or offending high power stations. So far I have not experience any overload of the antenna, so the preamp is plenty beefy for an urban location with lots of high power transmitters in all directions. I just can't say enough good things about this antenna and its about half the $$ of its nearest competitor.
I was so impressed with the antenna I bought the W6LVP experimental setup for travel, which is the loop preamp and power inserter and you supply your own wire for the loop. I found repeat customers get a hefty discount on the next purchase.
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