[VHFcontesting] LOOPS

[K3uhf at aol.com]

OK heres my 2 cents on loops as a rover

I used stacked loops for 2m and 222 mhz with m2 and did not have much success 
hearing much.  (yes I reversed one and spaced them as recondmended).  Perhaps 
that can be blamed on the car it is hard to stack 2 meter loops and properly 
space them above a 6 foot tall vehicle.  Next is the water issue, if they get 
wet, they detune and if you use 2 of them they detune much easier.  Next is 
the construction, the 2 meter and up are pretty rugged except the aluminum hex 
screws like to vibrate out and if you over tighten them it could strip them.  
One of my 222 loops came apart internally. The 6 meter loop is too shakey to go 
down the road, but it performs well at my house. M2's 6 meter needs something 
that will hack a bigger mast.

I met norm and seen his antennas.  The only reason you might tune them is for 
sats?  I dont know about that.  Many of the rovers up here in the Northwest 
use them.  I wish I would have bought them instead.  His are re-enforced on all 
the bands.  I imagine they don't have nulls at the corners where a m2 might 
have.  His 3 point re-enforcement might be better for rough northwest roads to 
get to tall NW Mountains.  M2 may be great for I-95 roving.

As my rover station grew and I have amp/pre-amps in the car, I have found the 
m2 loops useless, because the pre-amps pick up the stuff off the side. I even 
compared the 2 on the same contest and the worse I had to do is turn the car 
to pick up someone I could not find audible.  Perhaps 10 beams on the car 
interferes with the loops.  But I have had much more success in distance with 
beams than loops and if your going to rove. Buy the beams and pre-amps/amps. It 
will be the difference in making 3 grid away contacts without elevation and 
further with elevation compared to same/next grid contacts and some 200 mile shots 
at moutons.

In a nut shell most in the NW like norms antennas better and I mat buy some 
for home where I cant have beams.

OK maybe that was two bits.
k3uhf