Living in an HOA stronghold I've tried several ways to have clandestine outdoor antennas , but they were spotted by HOA observers with binoculars so I tried some indoor wire antennas. Last year I took the plunge and bought the P-Loop 2.0.
In about 6 weeks I will have been using this MLA for 1 year, and these are my comments:
Price: Expensive. When comparing full price to home grown, home grown wins. I signed up for their newsletter, which would give me a 10% discount and then hunkered down waiting for a sale which came shortly thereafter (30%), so I was able to take 40% off the top and it arrived at my door for around $250.
In the box: a canvas carrying bag with a loop of coax for the main loop, a sturdy aluminum coupling loop, telescopic mast, weather resistant tuning box, collapsible tripod, 12’ of RG-58 with an RFI choke feed-line, and instructions. The instructions are just copies or laser prints on regular paper.
Assembly: Well, the 1st time was daunting (it took about 10-15min.) but after that I was comfortable setting it up indoors or at the park in under 5 minutes.
Tuning: Easy. The large knob connected the the capacitor shaft and the 6:1 reducer make both small and large adjustments easy. I can easily ballpark my frequency by listening to the receiver while I turn the knob, and use a antenna analyzer to get the best SWR (usually 1.5:1 or less, but if I'm in a hurry I'll settle for 2:1).
Performance: I've never had an indoor antenna that would really work well due to electrical noise issues so there isn't much to compare it to, but I think it's done a great job! I've had no problems making contacts on 40, 20, and 15 meters (I would expect it would be the same on the other bands, I just haven't used them).
The antenna usually sits in my 2nd floor shack and using it vertically I've been able to successfully use the null spots in eliminating most of the electrical noise I have around here (from S5/6 to only a murmur). The first few weeks gave me time to get more familiar with fast tuning, as well as to experiment with different locations - Indoors on the second floor and outdoors on the lawn had little to no difference (as well, it's been to the park along with my FT-817 for a little fun in the shade).
Final comments:
Chameleon says it should handle 25 watts SSB but I've only used it with my TS-2000 @ 20 watts or the 817 @5w.
The entire package is well made and it's easy to see me using it for many years.
After using it for month it was clear that I could have made something myself for less money but it would probably not have been quite as portable or easy to take down.
As a way to get some middle ground between homemade and mfg. they sell a basic kit with the same tuning capacitor for $99. It was not available when I purchased my P-loop otherwise I may have gone that route.
It's not a miracle antenna per se (obviously a dipole or enfed could do better), except to operators like me who are heavily restricted when it comes to an outdoor antenna. So in my instance it is a "miracle" antenna.
In about 6 weeks I will have been using this MLA for 1 year, and these are my comments:
Price: Expensive. When comparing full price to home grown, home grown wins. I signed up for their newsletter, which would give me a 10% discount and then hunkered down waiting for a sale which came shortly thereafter (30%), so I was able to take 40% off the top and it arrived at my door for around $250.
In the box: a canvas carrying bag with a loop of coax for the main loop, a sturdy aluminum coupling loop, telescopic mast, weather resistant tuning box, collapsible tripod, 12’ of RG-58 with an RFI choke feed-line, and instructions. The instructions are just copies or laser prints on regular paper.
Assembly: Well, the 1st time was daunting (it took about 10-15min.) but after that I was comfortable setting it up indoors or at the park in under 5 minutes.
Tuning: Easy. The large knob connected the the capacitor shaft and the 6:1 reducer make both small and large adjustments easy. I can easily ballpark my frequency by listening to the receiver while I turn the knob, and use a antenna analyzer to get the best SWR (usually 1.5:1 or less, but if I'm in a hurry I'll settle for 2:1).
Performance: I've never had an indoor antenna that would really work well due to electrical noise issues so there isn't much to compare it to, but I think it's done a great job! I've had no problems making contacts on 40, 20, and 15 meters (I would expect it would be the same on the other bands, I just haven't used them).
The antenna usually sits in my 2nd floor shack and using it vertically I've been able to successfully use the null spots in eliminating most of the electrical noise I have around here (from S5/6 to only a murmur). The first few weeks gave me time to get more familiar with fast tuning, as well as to experiment with different locations - Indoors on the second floor and outdoors on the lawn had little to no difference (as well, it's been to the park along with my FT-817 for a little fun in the shade).
Final comments:
Chameleon says it should handle 25 watts SSB but I've only used it with my TS-2000 @ 20 watts or the 817 @5w.
The entire package is well made and it's easy to see me using it for many years.
After using it for month it was clear that I could have made something myself for less money but it would probably not have been quite as portable or easy to take down.
As a way to get some middle ground between homemade and mfg. they sell a basic kit with the same tuning capacitor for $99. It was not available when I purchased my P-loop otherwise I may have gone that route.
It's not a miracle antenna per se (obviously a dipole or enfed could do better), except to operators like me who are heavily restricted when it comes to an outdoor antenna. So in my instance it is a "miracle" antenna.