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Reviews For: WonderWand WonderLoop

Category: Antennas: HF Portable (not mobile)

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Review Summary For : WonderWand WonderLoop
Reviews: 11MSRP: 138
Description:
Compact qrp portable loop perfect for attaching direct to your ft-817 or qrp transceiver for an easy to use, instant portable hf antenna solution
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.wonder-wand.co.uk
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00114
G4LHT Rating: 2022-10-30
Great RX - TX 17M + Good Time Owned: more than 12 months.
October 2022 Cycle 25
12M/10M is buzzing;

This little loop even indoors works, will up the loop diameter to copper pipe 6mm and see how good it is, here’s me to Greece, also worked Oman on SSB, FT817 @ 5 watts https://youtu.be/fH4cEqUgg7g
KN6SU Rating: 2020-11-28
Good but could be improved Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Got the Wonder Loop for portable/backpacking use. It is superlight: the tuning unit is 3oz and the wire loop is 1.1 oz, bringing the whole antenna to a whopping 4.1oz.

Well, it does hear well on 40 thru 6 meters and you can, if conditions are favorable make contacts. The tuner works rather smoothly and tunes the loop well... extremely well IMHO.

The solid copper wire "loop" that comes with it is nothing more than a small coil of what appears to be a six foot length of 14 gauge solid copper wire with a crimped on spade tongue connector at both ends. The idea is you can open this wire into a loop for use and wrap it into a small coil for storage.

That works about as well as you might imagine repeatedly coiling and uncoiling a piece of 14 gauge soft copper electric wire would work...

Clearly the material chosen for the radiating loop is not optimal, except for its minimal weight. It isn't easily formed into a nicely circular shape and of more significance its surface area is quite small. The efficiency of a loop radiator is proportional to its surface area, all other things being equal.

Since I thought the tuner unit itself was superb, I decided to make a radiator out of the same length of 3/8 flexible copper tubing (from Home Depot). I flattened out a 3/4" section at both ends and drilled holes so I could attach the tuning unit. It was easy to bend the coil into a decent circle, which weighed in at 11oz., a bit too heavy for the tuning unit to support by itself while in use. The best way to support the antenna is to hang the top of the loop on a non-conductive pole. I use bamboo, but 1/2" pvc pipe would work just as well. I stand it up on my SuperAntenna TM-1 low profile tripod (with one rod attached). This improves the Wonder Loop's performance.

The 3/8' copper tube loop is obviously not as convenient to pack as the 14g wire, and you don't want to coil and open it repeatedly. A better choice for coil material for backpacking use would be a 6 foot section of 3/8" heliax, which is for my next project...

ADDENDUM: I need to point out that increasing the surface area of the radiating loop not only increases antenna efficiency (and ERP), but also increases the voltage across the tuning capacitor. You can see this by running the numbers through the available on-line magnetic loop calculators... Increasing the SA from 14g wire (.08" diameter) to 3/8" (.38" diameter) at 10W increases the voltage rating from about 90v to 600v.

So the big question is whether or not the capacitor in the tuning unit can handle the increased voltage. It might or might not be able to do that. Using thicker 10g (0.1") instead of 14g copper wire would increase the voltage rating of the tuning capacitor to 135v, which is more likely to be within the voltage rating of the Wonder Loop tuning cap...This still increases the loop's efficiency, allows it to hear better, doesn't add much to the weight, and makes it easier to form the loop into a more stable circular shape.

If you choose to use a more efficient radiator with the Wonder Loop tuner, I would recommend finding out exactly what the voltage tolerance of its capacitor is. I can tell you that it will increase the receive sensitivity a great deal.



G3SEA Rating: 2020-08-06
Good Propagation Cycle evident in earlier positive reports Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
i don't own one but It's evident that the positive results were obtained from this loop 3 to 10 years ago in far better Propagation conditions.
During the peak of a sunspot cycle even these small loops will work with 5 watts with amazing results.

G3SEA/KH6
W9OD Rating: 2020-08-06
Fantastic, this is AMAZING Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have owned the WonderLoop for many years. I do not use it as much as I should. When I have used it, it is with my K2, located in the basement with five watts. Worked stations in Florida, New York, Arizona etc. Five watts and this simple little antenna amazed me with what it could do from inside the house. It is a Wonder. W9OD
F4EGX Rating: 2020-08-06
Nope, not magic Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I use it with my FT817ND. Indoor or outdoor, it's absolutly crap, no wonder, not magic. The signal was very low, no "S" on S-meter. I never make QSO, never.
But yes we can hear something. for info: With my 4m wire "no tuning" inside my SO-239, the signal (S/N) is better

I see inside the black box: it's OK, transformer, and variable condensator.
I try with bigger wire loop. not OK... :( waste of money

OK if you make contact with this loop antenna, you are very lucky :)
Done Rating: 2017-03-01
Portable Plus Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
So I was looking for a portable HF antenna to take with my KX3 and not scare or trip anybody- and I found this WonderWand WonderLoop-- 40 to 10m version. It is what it is- a small portable loop, not sure if it is a "magnetic" loop because there is no external coupling capacitor- so with some testing and listening, running WSPR, CW, RTTY I have found that it works, not very efficient several DB lower than even an end fed wire-but... for making contacts while QRP portable it is fun- on WSPR on 20 meters while testing I even made it to Europe, I was heard using 1 watt. You can roll this up and stuff it in your pocket.
Tuning is very narrow and takes a steady hand.

It is worth just even to experiment with. Please see my short receive demo in my (basement):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3VR9I0hfa4&t=4s

73 and thanks for looking
2E0TPZ Rating: 2016-10-12
Amazing antenna Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I purchased the 14Mhz version of this Loop, my first ever Loop antenna. Plugged it into my Elecraft K1, in a ground floor apartment - and had absolutely no shortage of contacts to respond to. I was blown away. I was on 20m during mid-afternoon here in the UK.

Very nicely made, well presented in its packaging, I was so impressed I have since ordered the 40m WonderLoop version as well.

Very, very pleased. Cannot recommend this antenna enough.
G7IDJ Rating: 2015-04-05
Amazingly Simple and Good Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Having experimented with loops I went for the Wonderloop 14Mhz to 50MHz. Loops are magic and mysterious and something for the experimenter.
I use it in conjunction with the FT 817.
Ideal for portable operation. Little space required, compact and it works.
Compared to other portable antennas the noise margin is down by a lot. I actually do get contacts on 5 Watts consistently.
The wire which comes with the wonderloop for the self supporting loop is very sturdy and good for the job.
The tuning button is easy to reach and use.
A pity is that the maximum rating is only for 10Watts. I would have loved to go up to 25W or even more to allow a bit more flexibility.

Obviously it hasn't got the same performance as full dipole or a bigger loop but it works.

For what it is I would give it a 5 out of 5!

PD9W Rating: 2013-12-19
IT WORKS! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Just received my purchased WonderLoop today. Hooked it directly on my Elecraft K1 (5W) and after several attemps I succeeded in making qso with 9A282N (special call) in Croatia. Time: 15:29 UTC. About 1174 km from my qth. WonderLoop used INDOOR!

PD9W
ON4RUB Rating: 2013-11-01
Real little wonder Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Easy tuning from 20m to 6m, easy setup, very small, low noise level, just great.

I just love this little antenna, i use it mainly for digimodes and get great reports with it. It even works great indoor.

Fast and great communication with Carl thru email.
This one is a keeper for me