| HB9ZHK |
Rating:    |
2022-10-11 | |
| Good antenna, lousy customer support |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
First things first, the good: the antenna performs very well when properly tuned with the included tuner. I made QRP contacts further than I have ever before (I do have quite strict limitations on the antennas I can use where I live).
The bad: the tuner does not tune very well and I often have to tune multiple times to get an optimal SWR - I might be fussy here, but if I can get an SWR of 1:1.3 instead of 1:1.6 after the first tune I'll retune.
The ugly: customer support is lousy to absent. Out of three requests sent to them by e-mail, only one was answered and the answer was completely useless (I asked if the pinout and voltage levels on the serial port were standard RS-232 - all I got was "just buy our (overprized) cable and be fine with it).
Overall I'm a bit unsure if I took the right decision to buy this antenna. It performs very well and seems to be a near-perfect solution for the limitations I have here. On the other hand, it is exposed to wind and weather and will need maintenance and repair after a few year. After the disappointing experiences I had with customer support I'm not sure if I'll get this. |
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| N2ZD |
Rating:      |
2022-01-12 | |
| Performance is seldom cheap! |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
I picked this up a few months ago with the tripod. It tunes fast, the tuning unit and keypad are intuitive, it takes some extra power if needed.
The antenna is well constructed, a bit heavy but that’s to its advantage. Signals heard are very good and low noise by the loops very nature.
My Hats off to Ciro on a job well done. Right out I worked Belize and Michigan with the loop 10 feet from the front of the house in my driveway and I was heard on the first call.
It’s an expensive antenna, but I’m in an HOA and this looked like a good solution, so far so good as it has me on the air. |
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| DL7SDI |
Rating:      |
2021-04-09 | |
| Great Job of the Baby Loop |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
My Baby Loop is now installed since Nov 2020 and it's really a phantastic new experience for me. First trial was 2 m above ground on a tripod, autodetection works great and Baby Loop was identified without problems. First QSO's in all directions on 40m SSB with 100 W result in 59 in EU and booming signal comments - wooow. After 2 weeks mounted on the final destination 3 m above ground and 1,5 m above the roof. This is not optimal but works. Autodetection doesn't work anymore but manual detection was ok. Again - oustanding signal reports through EU, US CN and Southamerica on 40m(!) SSB. Never had that worked before on 40 m.
And - compared to my Vertical and Wire Antenna works ways better and i worked countries which I never did before.
A really outstanding antenna and worth every Euro. To be honest - I'm really impressed by that performance.
You can see it on QRZ.com.... |
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| N7JFF |
Rating:      |
2021-02-17 | |
| Master of Compromize |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
I won't go on and on in detail, but did notice that most of the reviews here are very old, and wondering if these users have the update ATU 2.0? I have put several hours on the Baby Loop since receiving it a week ago, and just over 400 contacts, mostly on FT8.
I am making contacts with countries I would only get when the stars are in alignment, like Australia. I have been making contacts in Australia everyday since the install. I also am getting countries I have never had, and seeing countries on the screen that I have never seen. I am working DX everyday.
This antenna is certainly not compromised where it comes to build quality, and based on my experience with long wire antennas, I don't feel like it's compromising.
Matter of fact, I like it so much I will most likely be purchasing the Midi Loop at some point as well.
Good luck! Good DX!!!
Update: 06-23-2020
I wanted to make a short update. The DX still pouring in as I am now continuing to log new countries on FT8. Last Sunday evening, I logged OD5KU in Lebanon. Okay, I was pretty excited! Last night I saw a station on Easter Island. It was already fading deep into the grey line, but know know when to watch for him now. I don't see much in change of the propagation reports, so it must be the antenna, and of course a bit of help from the big guns out there in Europe. I am also assuming that with COVID-19, "Stay At Home", there are many more operators on the HF bands. Heaven knows you can't reg chew or tie up talk group 91 World Wide on DMR... hi hi
Hey, I am not the only Ham working DX in Montana, however it seems that way as I get many operators needing MT to complete WAS. Bring em on! I am happy to be your Montana confirmed contact! I have sat on the fence about this antenna for over a year. I in now way regret it, and am surprised every day that I fire up the rig the stations that I am making contacts with. I will keep more updates going! So far I am up to 772 logged contacts for June, 2020 since installing this antenna. By the way, I still have a day job, so I only get in a couple of hours a day.
February 17th, 2021 Update
Still enjoying the loop, and making many DX contacts. Band conditions are still not that great, but seem to still work Aussie stations, Russian, and stations in Europe. I want to mention, that my antenna is ground mounted, and the closest object is the back of the house at 30 feet from the antenna. Any other objects/ structures are three times that. I have a lot of clear space. I will editing and updating this review would allow me to add a photo of the install and you could clearly see what I mean. We have had just last week temps at -30 without the wind. I leave the loop on 20 during those temps. The antenna is still running strong, and preforming well. |
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| AG6EM |
Rating:      |
2020-07-01 | |
| Great but you may need an expensive accessory |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
I purchased the Baby Loop for my HOA regulated home. I also purchased the tripod so I could experiment with locations in the yard for hiding it as much as possible from the neighbors. I am impressed by the performance of the Baby Loop to pull in signals with relatively low noise. While this is an expensive antenna it is probably the best solution for my situation.
I did have a couple of problems. At first the actuator that tunes the antenna would not work. I checked the wiring and found a bad crimp on one of the wires in the upper junction box of the antenna. After fixing that I checked the actuator with a meter and found an extremely high resistance value, far too high for the DC motor that is internal to the actuator. I tried reversing the polarity of the wiring but that didn’t work. After contacting DX Engineering they offered to send either an actuator or an entire new antenna. The next day I moved the antenna to a different location and the actuator started working. The actuator has internal limit switches and I suspect one of them might have been stuck and the vibration from moving it may have freed it up. I have had no further problems to date.
Now on to the ATU. I have an Icom IC-7600 and I purchased the adapter cable for the CI-V interface. Upon setting it up for Automatic tune the ATU tries to tune the antenna to 6.6 mHz, the lower limit of the antenna. This failed with the ATU continuously waiting for the antenna to tune. The actuator had hit the limit switch and the motor was no longer running but the air capacitor was not fully closed so the antenna couldn’t tune down that far. This was corrected by loosing the mounting bracket for the actuator and adjusting it so the capacitor was fully closed when the limit was reached. Now everything was working fine until I tried to start Ham Radio Deluxe which was connected to the radio by its USB port. Any tuning of the radio either by HRD or the tuning dial would cause HRD rig control to stop functioning. I tried WSJT-X and got error messages. Apparently the ATU continuously polls the radio for frequency changes and these were colliding with the rig control software. After several emails to HRD, DX Engineering, and Icom, no solution was in sight. I also emailed Ciro Mazzoni but it took several days for them to reply that I needed to buy their “Serial Switch” which would correct this issue. This was an expensive fix at $500 US but it did work to solve the problem. I suspect anyone with an Icom transceiver will have this issue and probably with other makes as well. In addition, the ATU will not now function in automatic mode unless HRD or some other rig control software is in operation. If I want to operate without the computer I need to remove the Serial Switch or change the ATU to Manual mode.
I did find one other possible software solution for Icom radios after the fact which I have not tested but should work. The Win4IcomSuite ($60 US) along with Com0Com (free) should work for those of you with an Icom that don’t want the expense of the Serial Switch. The software provides rig control and virtual serial ports which can be configured with Com0Com to link other software application to the radio. There are some good setup videos for this on the Win4IcomSuite web site.
One caution when reading about the linear actuator provide on the antenna. It has a 10% duty cycle rating and the manufacturer’s documentation says exceeding this may shorten its life. Those who like to search and pounce should be aware of this.
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| KH4AB |
Rating:      |
2018-10-12 | |
| Stealthy & Best Mag Loop Antenna Ever |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Stealthy Baby Loop Antenna:
Hello fellow Hams and Baby Loop enthusiast. I just wanted to share the new look of my stealthy and camouflage Baby Loop antenna. I was actually pleasantly surprised how my paint job turned out after about five paint spray cans from the Home Depot’s Rust-Oleum camouflage series set.
I was a little bit worried that the paint may impact the performance, but to my second surprise, not one bit of SWR changed from bare to painted metal. This antenna just continues to impress me every time I turn on ICOM 7300 as I am getting a very impressive SWR from 1.1 to 1.6 across the entire 6600 to 29800 band…simply amazing.
With regard to DX, farthest contact has been Chile and Argentina on the southern end and US east coast to the East, and Hawaii to the west. I heard Guam and Saipan Islands last week, but they could barely hear me on 40 meters SSB. Antenna is only about 8ft above ground at my backyard at this time on a Yeasu 450A rotator.
The goal it to mount it on the roof one of these days to improve DX performance and hopefully the HOA will not notice…lol…I also think the paint will be able to extend and protect the bare metal from the natural elements, although, the construction, fit, and finish is top notch industrial grade quality.
So far so good, I am very satisfied and very pleased with this magnetic loop antenna system, the tuning with the ATU2.0 can automatically tune from the IC7300 and it can follow my rig’s VFO via the CI-V serial RS-232 interface.
Thank you Cirro Mazonni.
Cheers & 73s,
Dan – KM6VMR
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| 2E0JWW |
Rating:      |
2016-10-10 | |
| Great antenna |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
Just thought i would update since my last review on this great antenna.
Since the last review i have now installed a rotator and the difference is just incredible,since then i have had some nice DX,sure its not going to compete with a big Yagi,but for me it is the best Antenna i have had in my limited space. |
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| GW4UWD |
Rating:      |
2016-09-13 | |
| Brilliant quality in build and performance |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| Have used the loop consistently since January this year with an Icom 7200, elderly ft747gx and ts430s for ssb and an Elecraft K2 for cw.The first results show how quiet the loop is for noise.perfect for cw at qrp and higher levels. Working Kuwait,Saudi etc with good results.My baseline is the other antenna being a perfect Hi End fed antenna from the Netherlands whilst using an Icom 718, FT450D for ssb and a K1 for CW.The hi end fed is 1.1.1 on all bands except top band with the auto atu, but so much noisier than the loop.The loop seems to have the edge on the end fed. It is very well made, easy to set up and does the job perfectly. A lot of money for the kit, but you get what you pay for. I would strongly recommend it. Love mine and enjoy the dx. 73. Peter GW4UWD |
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| GW4DVB |
Rating:     |
2016-05-31 | |
| Geeting to grips with the Baby Loop |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
**Updated Reveiw to replace older one**
After a couple of months I am at last getting to grips with the Baby Loop.
After a couple of comparisons the noise level is definitely lower compared with a vertical or a dipole.
Rx levels are 3 / 6 db lower but is compensated by lower noise level.
It is definitely directional so you WILL need a rotator.
They now recommend that the loop is mounted at least 10M from shack due to possible high RF levels in the shack – sadly I am suffering with this despite the antenna being over 10m away from the house!!!. To try and avoid the RF getting into the shack I have been experimenting with adding a couple of 'Ugly Baluns' – one at the loop feed point and the other where the feeder enters the shack. This seems to have helped.
My loop tunes up on all bands < 1.5:1 except 10m where I cannot get it below 2:1 rendering it useless on this band!!
The tuning of the loop via its own ATU is a bit strange as it sends an RF signal to the loop which auto adjusts for minimum SWR - the disconcerting apsect of this is that you can hear this on the receiver - sometimes VERY loud especially if the receiver in just off frequency.The auto tune option linked to a transceiver is a great idea but I have found it totally impractical as the loop is continually retuning as you adjust the VFO.
Due to the high ‘Q’ of the loop the receive level quickly tails off either side of resonance which make the use of a pan-adaptor difficult... typically its bandwidth on 40m is only 10 or 20 k
Even with the observations above I've fallen in love with it and have worked lots of stations with 59 reports across the globe on most bands.
So if you haven't got the space for a better antenna and love playing with something different go for it!!!
If nothing else the local birds will love their new garden feeder / perch :)
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| IU2GFF |
Rating:      |
2016-03-15 | |
| Simply great! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Bravo Ciro!
This antenna is built to last. It's made from solid aluminum and stainless steel. It's a masterpiece of Italian craftsmanship.
It performs very well: I get 59 reports from all Europe.
I'm surprised with the absolute absence of noise and QRM.
The new ATU 2.0 is full auto: just turn the VFO knob and the ATU automatically tunes the loop.
With a Yaesu RTX, do not forget to set the CAT on the RS232 port and to disable the RTS. This is not written in the manual.
A rotator is recommended. This antenna is quite directional for low angle signals.
1. very good performance
2. very easy to use with the new ATU 2.0 - Full auto tuning!
3. can be installed everywhere
4. no QRM
5. no litigations with neighbors
I cannot ask more to an antenna.
73
IU2GFF
Franco
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