Wellbrook Magnetic Aerial

[Radio Fixer]

Talked to a very communications receiver restorer and friend this morning and he has been trying one. Said they are fantastic and I will be amazed even on a window sill compared to my old aerial in the Den. This was just the aluminium of the secondary double glazing. (I do have long wires on the dining room and lounge radios).

So ordered a Active Loop Antenna ALA1530 which is also suitable for outdoors. Eventual aim will be to do that with it well away from the house and on a low cost rotator. Have to do that when SWMBOs away and run the cables or maybe another holiday; bribes work.

Chap at Wellbrook said if I have domestic sets with a doublet (dipole in UK speak) input I could use that. Connect the coax inner to one side and the outer to the other and run that down to an earth spike. If I understood him correctly ? Aerials are a weak point with me.

He can aslo supply a wide band matching transformer if I need it but said I probably will be OK without it.

So I will let you know how it goes once it arrives and maybe do an article later once I have garden mounting sorted.

Gary

[pwdrive]

"Chap at Wellbrook said if I have domestic sets with a doublet (dipole in UK speak) input I could use that. Connect the coax inner to one side and the outer to the other and run that down to an earth spike"

If I remember correctly, that's what he said to me a few years ago.

Keep us up to date.

Lawrence.

[Geaney]

In a similar vein I've ordered up one of these to do some testing on SW and MW.

http://www.kaitousa.com/KA33.htm

It seems to have some good reviews on the net.

I'm still having fun with the home brew aerial but it doesn't help with SW reception.

Cheers, John

[Rascal]

I Have used the ALA1530 for a couple of years and can confirm that it works very well.

Originally I had it sited in the loft space and using a rotator I had very good results. I eventually moved it to the outside and well away from the house and it proved to be exceptional on both my Racal RA17L and my AOR ar3030.

My dipoles and verticals are now obsolete (almost)

Paul

[pwdrive]

In a similar vein I've ordered up one of these to do some testing on SW and MW.

http://www.kaitousa.com/KA33.htm

It seems to have some good reviews on the net.

I'm still having fun with the home brew aerial but it doesn't help with SW reception.

Cheers, John

Yes that design as published won't work too well on shortwave, there's not enough tuning range, if you were to reduce the inductance of the tuning coil to cover the shortwave band(s) you would be reducing the amount of wire available to pick up the signal.
Also the most commonly available ferrite rods don't generally work that well at those higher frequencies so far as I am aware, apart from the usual random/long wire, dipole/doublet the only decent alternative is an air cored magnetic loop either tuned or untuned.

Lawrence.

[Geaney]

Well I looked around and the Wellbrook aerials seem to get everyone's vote so I've just finished installing my new ALA1530S+ and will do some reception testing this evening.   Based in the major improvement when I tried it out in the workshop, expectations are high.   Seems to work really well across LW, MW, and SW.

It's a bit near the house but I don't have too many options in that regard.

If all goes well I'll post a video or audio clip to demonstrate results.

Cheers,   John

[Radio Fixer]

Oh! well done John. Be pleased to know how you get on.

Mine is still on the window sill and works surprisingly well. It will get moved to the bottom of the garden when the weather improves.

Gary

[tiv48]

or a cheaper one here http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/270732334521
Rob T

[Geaney]

I got one of the cheap ones - didn't make much of a difference in my case and well the quality wasn't there.  Simple things like the 'suckers' wouldn't stick to the window so I had to replace them.   I appreciate the Wellbrook is much more expensive but for me the noise/interference rejection alone makes it worth the investment.

I made a video clip last night to illustrate the difference this one makes for me.   Will edit it down and try to post in a day or so.

Cheers,   John  

[Geaney]

So, here are the results of my Wellbrook Loop Aerial installation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpy56dEDIPg


[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpy56dEDIPg][/url]Cheers,   John