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Reviews For: ICOM AL-705 Magnetic Loop Antenna

Category: Antennas: HF Portable (not mobile)

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Review Summary For : ICOM AL-705 Magnetic Loop Antenna
Reviews: 10MSRP: 299
Description:
Icom AL-705 is a 40 to 10 meter magnetic loop antenna with maximum power handling of 20 Watts SSB, 10 Watts CW & Digital.
Product is in production
More Info: https://www.icomamerica.com/en/products/amateur/handheld/705/al-705.aspx
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00104.2
K1DX Rating: 2022-05-05
Almost a good product Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Difficult to tune 20-10m. Needs a larger knob and reduction drive. Main loop needs vertical support. I found it unstable using it outside

The AL-705 enhancement kit provided by Alpha Antennas eliminates most of my objections. The crank knob and tripod mount and tripod provide ease of tuning and mechanical stability.
W5KT Rating: 2022-04-05
Excellent and small Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I had always used a dipole in the attic with 100W. I got an IC-705 then bought the AL-705. I was amazed at how much better it was than my attic dipole. Mounted on a tripod on my back patio, heard many stations. Successful 5W contact on the IC-705 with no problem. Easy to tune. Never had used a mag loop before.
LNXAUTHOR Rating: 2022-03-01
great portable loop with a bonus Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
have been kinda loopy about loops for /p operating... bought my al-705 used and put it right to work... have made many contacts using my 705 and tx-500...

first thing i did was to buy a cellphone mount with vertical and horizontal 1/4x20 tripod holes... i then used thin flat-bar to bolt the mount to the tuning box using the included wall mount inserts - works great for tripod mounting!

next, for a few bucks i cut two foot-long sections of pvc, then used couplers and a cap to make a break-down mast for the main and coupler loops - that works great, too...

finally, the bonus: the tuning box has no stops, unlike the Alexloop, CHA Floop, or Alpha's 100W loop... this means i was able to easily craft a wireless remote tuning loop using the tuning box, and a 433MHz fwd/stop/rev box inline with a 5rpm 9-12V high-torque motor - a simple press fit using 3M dbl-sided tape against the loop's tuning knob makes the system complete... no need for stepping or limits - just tune for best receive, then quickly toggle direction to hit the lowest swr - cost was less than $40

here's another tip: if you don't need to be spot on a freq, get the loop tuning as close as you can, then simply turn the vfo while transmitting a low carrier to hit the sweet spot!

this loop is a lot of fun!
KF5I Rating: 2022-02-18
Works Somewhat Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
First problem was there was a scraping sound when I turned the tuning knob. Opened the case and found they forgot to trim a wire and it was shorting on the gang capacitor! Sloppy construction.

Once I trimmed the wire and made sure the capacitor blades were okay, I was able to tune. Can get reasonable SWR if the antenna is up at least 4' above the ground and away from anything metal.

The loop takes patience to form into a circle and balance so the antenna stands up. Even a light breeze will knock it over. Not very stable. Planning to make some sort of non-metal stand to hang the loop. Something like mast on the CHA F-LOOP or other Alpha loops would be nice.

Tuning takes patience but it can be done. Works okay for super portable use (e.g., SOTA) but will use a BuddiStick Pro or WRC unless I need the bare minimum.
KD2RCQ Rating: 2021-07-22
Awesome Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This antenna, on a tripod in my backyard, with an Icom IC 705, 5 watts made a Vara HF winlink connection 30 miles away on 80 meters. And, I’m in the middle of Queens. Just awesome.
WA6MOW Rating: 2021-05-14
No magic for me. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I used it portable. I had to carry a sturdy tripod to mount it securely. Even then the wind would play havoc on the swr. I had to buy an analyzer in order to tune it. You better have lots of patience as it is a challenge. My total investment over $500 bucks! I made a few contacts with it receiving weak signal reports People would bother me wanting to know what I was doing. I told them I was monitoring Taliban activity. lol.
I had a junk piece of random length wire with me and threw it up in a tree. I had my cheapo MFJ end fed tuner with me. Now the magic happened. I made contacts on 20 and 40 cw with solid signal reports using my KX2. It tuned quickly. No antenna analyzer needed. Total investment about $50 as I bought the tuner off of eBay. I sold the loop and the antenna analyzer for a hefty loss. Because of the size of this loop it is very inefficient. It is well made and comes in a neat little carrying bag. It works as well or better than other loops of this size. If you need an indoor antenna and have a nice window or patio this antenna would be fun to play with if you have the money to dink around with. You may want to try a random wire and the end fed MFJ tuner first and save your money for a new rig.
ZL1YAK Rating: 2021-01-19
Utterly magical Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I purchased the loop from the local Icom distributor and had a few hiccups getting it running at first, but after a few emails with Alpha Antenna they were all resolved quickly.

It tunes up really easy on 40m to around 1.5 and 1.8 on 30. and around 2 on 20m.

I've been able to make FT8 contacts from ZL to JA on 10watts with the iC-705 and hear transmitters from much further away with the antenna just sitting on a wooden table.

Just waiting on the extension loop to arrive now.
WA7JFO Rating: 2020-12-04
Lessons learned Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I couldn’t tune the loop to less than 3:1 when I set it up. At first I thought it was because (on the small feed loop where the 3-way Connector is located) there was a center conductor that had seemed to have came off. I soon found out that the center pin that is removed on purpose because it isn’t part of the circuit at all!

Back to my SWR woes, where it was this video that showed me the inner loop can be reshaped to change the amount of induction between the two loops. This brought my SWRs on all bands down below Icom’s specification of 2.5:1...and with a little tweaking below 1.9:1 on all bands: https://youtu.be/1Agd1vS0Dug

Now I was ready to rock and roll...or so I thought. I placed the loop on my desk, and couldn’t tune the SWR below 5:1. Here we go again I thought...turns out you can’t put the loop on a metal desk. My bad. I set the loop on the edge of my window frame. You guessed it, the screen was metal...no SWR was below 3:1 again. I broke out my $1 TV dinner table garage sale find, which now serves as my Magnetic Loop support system, and immediately the SWR was tunable to below 1.9:1.

You’d think it’d work now, Right? Yes, it most certainly did! While sitting about 3 feet from other objects in the corner of my room, I made 5 SSB QSOs with 10 watts using the IC-705 and AL-705. 2 contacts were on 40M and 3 on 20M...one was from over 1500 miles away!

Would I recommend this to others? Only if you have patience.

Would I buy this again? I definitely would!
K8HIT Rating: 2020-12-03
Low quality parts and assembly Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
As I took it out of the bag the 3-way connector of the small loop came apart.

Two of the screws holding the cover on the matching box are jammed due to galling. I had to drill the heads off to open it up. There really is not a reason, other than curiosity, to open the box.

Alpha Antenna sent me two 3-ways, and a matching box. I also received several emails along the way with tips and next steps. Their efforts were admirable.

Unfortunately, I was unable to tune an SWR of less than 3:1. I used both a SWR meter and the SWR functions of the IC-705 for measurements. There must be something else going on, but I could not figure it out.
K4CUE Rating: 2020-11-30
Great compliment to IC-705 Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is my third magnetic loop antenna, purchased for optimal size and weight, as previous models have cumbersome telescopic masts and tuning boxes. The AL-705 performs admirably, consistent with the larger cousins and stows away neatly in the ICOM travel bag. A "must-have" for the SOTA enthusiast. Manufacturer Alpha Antenna also offers an enhancement kit, which offers improved performance on 20 and 40 meters, also extending coverage to 60 and 80. 73, K4CUE