Testing the MLA-T

After cleaning the garage yesterday, I found the – after one year still boxed – MLA-T Magnetic Loop Antenna. Hope to have time this weekend to test things out. First thing to do is find a good point to fix the coupling loop, since this model has no gamma match like mentioned on the Wimo website.

I found a dip on the 40- and 80-meter band, but then it started to rain. Hope to find the dip for the 160-meter band later on today. Band-switching is done manually by adding or removing shunts. The tuner feeds the butterfly capacitor over coax, so a separate feeding line is not needed. The capacitor is able to handle about 100 Watt PEP. specified in the manual.

Tuning however, is done manually by pressing the up/down keys on the controller, which makes it a bit difficult to find the resonance point without tools. I’m lucky since I have a spectrum analyzer with tracking generator and VSWR-bridge, but simpler tools like a Rigexpert analyzer are also handy. Without these, it would be way more difficult.

Now, let’s smoke the soldering iron and build come cabling. If all goes planned, I’ll be QRV tonight when the low bands open. Let’s start with some JT65 and/or CW QSO’s. Hope to post some test results later on…

Click on the thumbnails to see larger pictures.