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Reviews For: Alpha Antenna 10-40 Meter 100W Base Magnetic Loop + Remote

Category: Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

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Review Summary For : Alpha Antenna 10-40 Meter 100W Base Magnetic Loop + Remote
Reviews: 4MSRP: 999 USD
Description:
Remotely controlled 10-40 meter base and transportable Alpha Magnetic Loop Antenna for indoor or permanent outdoor base deployments, which is rated at 100 PEP SSB, 50 CW, or 25 watts for sporadic use of digital modes (10 watts for continuous use of digital modes).
Product is in production
More Info: https://alphaantenna.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0045
KE8JLM Rating: 2023-03-28
Hearing people and making contacts Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've owned this for years. I've had no problems with it, set up is easy, it's small enough and travels well, it's also well built. More importantly it works well for me. Great support if you have any questions.
W4LUC Rating: 2023-03-21
What a difference! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is one fantastic antenna with a remote tuner. After using a vertical for many years, I was concerned about the loop's narrow bandwidth and wondered if I'd be incessantly tuning. My concerns would be answered after a few week's lead time waiting on the antenna.

It arrived nicely packed, in perfect shape, and I had it assembled in less than 20 minutes. It's a very easy build onto a 5' aluminum pole with a lightweight rotor that I purchased for this project. After all cabling was attached to the loop, tuner, and rotor, I applied the supplied power unit to the remote control and listened to the plates of the capacitor open and close successfully as I pressed the remote control's red and green buttons. Connectors were weatherproofed and onto the roof it went.

I placed my IC-7300 on 20 meters and attempted to tune the loop to resonance. The controller has a potentiometer on the top that varies the tuning speed. Doing what any other red-blooded man would do, I turned the pot all the way to the right and started tuning. Don't do that. I went back and forth a few times missing the resonant point because it goes so fast. The pot was turned back to mid-dial and I began to tune, watching my waterfall. As you reach your frequency, you will hear the noise level come up and the waterfall will "brighten". In my case, I could also see a slight "arching" in the noise floor where the resonance was. This is when I decided to send a carrier and view the SWR and touch it up. For the Icom, SOTABEAMS makes a Click2Tune kit (https://www.sotabeams.co.uk/click2tune-for-icom-kit-or-built) that allows the radio to key-up at low power, thus eliminating the need to increase and decrease power to tune. I believe other radios have this functionality built-in. On 10-40 meters I was able to tune the antenna until the SWR was almost flat. On 20 meters, where SWR is the highest, it's only 1.3:1. I'm very impressed. I changed the dial to 10 meters and tuned to where there were some DX calls and I jumped into the pileups. Europe, Central, and South America returned my calls with no issues using 100w on my end. The amount of times I needed to tune was not an issue for me as the bandwidth was pleasantly wide for a loop.

In my case, when the speed knob was adjusted to slow down the tuner, I noticed an introduction of what appeared to be DC noise on the spectrum. To mitigate that, I put a mix 31 ferrite on the control cable that goes up to the tuner. It knocked out most of the noise and tuning is easy.

In conclusion, I am very satisfied with this antenna. It quiets the band, you can use the slight null on the sides to mitigate a noise source, and its size accommodates HOA concerns, if that is an issue. Whenever I had any questions, the owner Steve personally answered them and I never felt rushed. The customer service is second to none. They stand by their products.

73,
Chris
N0CWQ Rating: 2022-05-16
Alpha Antenna Base Loop Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I live in a high rise condominium on the 16th floor. I purchased the Alpha Base Loop almost 3 years ago and it has performed very well. I have had many QSOs on 40,20,15 and 10 meters. I have had good SWR readings on all the bands. It has survived 2 harsh winters and many storms with high winds. The worst storm was a derecho.

In case you are wondering what the heck is a derecho here is the definition.

A Derecho is a widespread long lived straight wind storm that is associated with a fast moving group of severe thunderstorms.

During this storm we had sustained winds of over 120 mph for about 4 minutes. All over town we had roofs destroyed, trees down everywhere and much of the city was without power for almost a week.

The Base Loop survived. I had it mounted to a steel pole which was strapped tightly to the balcony railing. I did have to go out and straighten up the coax and it did lose a support beam. But that was easy to replace, and the antenna still performed well even without the support beam.

The antenna has performed better than most verticals that I have used in the past. It’s not a multi element beam but it has gotten me on HF when I didn’t think it would be possible. I have worked all over the US and over 25 countries in Europe, South America, Hawaii and Alaska.

It is a high Q antenna so an antenna analyzer can be a big help in tuning the antenna. I have had no complaints from the HOA and no one has even noticed it. If you put it next a grill or potted plant they probably won’t realize it’s an antenna.

It is a great antenna and well worth the money.
N0ML Rating: 2020-09-16
Great antenna Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I've had an interest in magnetic loop antennas for a while. I've considered portable loops, receive only loops, etc. Since I live in a restrictive HOA neighborhood, a small magnetic loop antenna held an appeal to me. There are only a few small magnetic loop antennas on the market that can handle 100 watts out. After researching various magnetic loops, I opted to go the route of the Alpha Antenna. In my situation, I can easily put it up and take it down using a couple of 4 ft sections of fiberglass push up mast, which allows me the portability, low profile, 100 watts out without drawing the ire of neighbors and of equal importance the ease of operation. At this point, I'm pleased with my decision and the Alpha Antenna.

Here is a brief list of what I consider to be the benefits of this antenna:
-suitable for either permanent or portable operation
-100 watts PEP
-10-40 meter coverage
-remote control tuning
-ease and quickness of tuning within a band of
operation
-low signal to noise ratio
-ease of assembly/detailed instructions/You Tube video
assembly instructions
-exceptional customer service
-competitive cost (compared to other 100 watt loops on the market)

There is a learning curve to tuning from band to band, which just takes a little practice and experience. Ninety seconds is about what it takes to move /tune from band to band.

The Alpha Antenna Model 100 W Base Loop has everything I need given my particular circumstances and the Customer Service has been exceptional.

Hope everyone found this review helpful