SpaceForceCmdr
Member
I was using a long wire in my attic attached to a whip which fed downstairs. The MLA came today, and I put it on a 1" PVC pipe, and built a small base for it our of shelf brackets and band clamps. I think it worked out pretty well. At the moment, it's up on the second floor near a window. Only complaint I have is that there's no way to disconnect the cable at the loop. I'd like to try it outside, but I have the cable run down through the wall, and it'd be a pain to undo/redo it.
As far as functionality, I think it's better than my indoor wire. I tested a bunch of signals from 30000 and down, and in most cases, the loop delivered a better SNR than the wire. In a few cases, the wire seemed to be better. In general, I'd say I was getting 5-10 dB better SNR with the loop, and I think the noise floor may be slightly lower. I'm a newb to all this stuff, so take this all with a grain of salt.
So, for 45 bucks, I think it's a pretty good deal. Not a huge improvement over my wire setup, but in most cases it does seem to do a little better. I'm sure if I put it outside it'd do even better. As far as adjusting it, that was a pain, too, since it's upstairs and my PC is downstairs. I ended up grabbing my laptop, remoting into my desktop, and then taking the laptop upstairs so I could watch my SDR as I moved the antenna. There were definitely big swings in reception depending on the orientation.
Here it is for now. I only use this upstairs area for storage, so I'm not concerned about it looking weird or getting in the way.
As far as functionality, I think it's better than my indoor wire. I tested a bunch of signals from 30000 and down, and in most cases, the loop delivered a better SNR than the wire. In a few cases, the wire seemed to be better. In general, I'd say I was getting 5-10 dB better SNR with the loop, and I think the noise floor may be slightly lower. I'm a newb to all this stuff, so take this all with a grain of salt.
So, for 45 bucks, I think it's a pretty good deal. Not a huge improvement over my wire setup, but in most cases it does seem to do a little better. I'm sure if I put it outside it'd do even better. As far as adjusting it, that was a pain, too, since it's upstairs and my PC is downstairs. I ended up grabbing my laptop, remoting into my desktop, and then taking the laptop upstairs so I could watch my SDR as I moved the antenna. There were definitely big swings in reception depending on the orientation.
Here it is for now. I only use this upstairs area for storage, so I'm not concerned about it looking weird or getting in the way.