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Reviews For: Moonraker Whizz Loop V2 40-10M QRP Antenna

Category: Antennas: HF Portable (not mobile)

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Review Summary For : Moonraker Whizz Loop V2 40-10M QRP Antenna
Reviews: 1MSRP: ~US$100+
Description:
The Whizz Loop V2 covers from 40m and is for QRP Transceivers when space is limited or using portable with a Yaesu FT-818 or similar transceiver. Has a “pocket” size, with the following specifications: TX: 7-30 MHz (40-10M) Power: 10W Max AM/CW/SSB Width: 40cm Connection: PL259
Product is in production
More Info: https://moonrakeronline.com/us/moonraker-whizz-loop-v2-40-10m-qrp-antenna
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0012
LNXAUTHOR Rating: 2022-07-14
OK for intended use, bad QC Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is yet another compromise antenna intended for occaisional portable use with transceivers running QRP power levels. The form factor is derived from Yazoo's legacy FT-817 form factor, with an available UHF connector on the rear of the rig. However, the current crop of uSDR 'buttons-on-top' uSDX clones also sport such a connector and will match up with these antennas.

The question is: Will this work? Well, the answer depends on your expectations or intended use. As I have a number of fuller-sized loops, I was a bit skeptical about how well this little loop would work. There are a number of reviews on-line, but none with any real-world results or testing.

Unfortunately my version of this antenna needed help right out of the box. One of the connectors fell off immediately after uncoiling the thin guage copper radiator. It had not been properly soldered (in fact there was little to no solder at the wire's end). A quick touch-up with an iron fixed what should have been done at assembly.

I uncoiled the wire into a loop and connected the antenna using a short pigtail to my nanovna analyzer. As expected, tuning to resonance was easily done at 20M, but tuning on 40M was nearly impossible due to the antenna Q. I did it, but it was not fun. Opening up the tuning box revealed a wound toroid and clipped tuning capacitor. Unlike the other coupler variants of this antenna, there is a limited tuning range using the tuner knob.

This little antenna begs for a vernier reduction dial. In fact, there is a 3D-printed support available for such a dial (available from Max-Gain Systems), but unfortunately this antenna's box is too large. You will have to craft your own support - which i plan to do - to attach a reduction dial. This will make tuning much easier.

Which brings up another problem with this antenna. Had the maker put a little more effort into the design and installed a tripod support nut on the bottom of the tuning box, you would be able to easily use this antenna with any qrp transceiver. There are many small desktop support tripods. As it is, this antenna is unwieldy, floppy, and ill-suited for any non-UHF transceiver.

Tuning this antenna to 14.047.5 while propped against a window in a spare bedroom, I was easily able to copy and decode W1AW's machine broadcast on my TX-500 transceiver (which has a BNC connector, necessitating PL-259->UHF->BNC adapters in order to use the antenna).

So how do I view this antenna? Pretty much the same as my vintage Miracle Whip purchased 20 years ago: A convenient compromise antenna best suited for receiving from 40M-10M in portable situations with rapid (but perhaps not ideal) deployment. A tripod support would add utility.

This little loop antenna has one advantage in that if you are able to rotate it, you may be able to null out some noise. On the other hand, the Miracle Whip functions quite well for AM/FM BCB reception, and performs very well for ragchewing on 2M repeaters.