Magnetic Loop 20,208 mile contact with LY28A, from HL1ZIX

[@sunmoon7406]

Nice one shot DX contact with home made loop antenna and Pen adjusting stick is such a great idea. Cool!

[@cw.only.channel]

Beautiful natur and rig. 73

[@pixotica]

Think I would want to be a little farther away from that radiator myself??

[@thestingyham1188]

I don't operate loops much anymore, as this kind of freaks me out a bit, also.

[@sincerelyyours7538]

Interesting. I lived in Itaewon 2012-2017. Lived on a steep hill near Namsan Park for four years. Made many bike trips there. Didn't have my ham license then, though. Now I wish I had. Would have been perfect. Nice loop, btw. Can you get 100 watts out of it (at a safer distance, of course!)?

[@gussc.3727]

Great work. Mr. Derek... I really love to see what you are doing with the loop. If possible, why don't you try to make one lower band like 80m as 2 turns.

[@conchd]

What was his call sign again? LY58A?

[@thestingyham1188]

It's in the comments.

[@diegoponcedeleon5375]

good job Derek!!! best 73's cx4di

[@donroussey7595]

I haven't seen Seoul since 1969. I was stationed in Yeoung Son.

[@thestingyham1188]

Don Roussey Thanks for the comment. Also sad to tell you that the Korean gov't stopped issuing long-term ham licenses for us, and once our current licenses run out, we get a short temp license, then done. No more license. :( At least I am good through 2020.

[@cohiba88]

Like your mag loop. Does it do 40m?

[@thestingyham1188]

It did, bit not very efficient. I could work Japan.

[@IZ0MTW]

The fact that the transmitting station is pointing his antenna long path in relation to you doesn’t mean that the signal is really coming along that path. A directional antenna has always side lobs and the rear lobe is often times quite pronounced, especially in hf antenna designs. That means that when he’s pointing long path is actually just coming short path by the rear of his antenna. To be sure of which path is being used he should turn 180 deg and show the difference, only then you can tell. Having said that I’m not saying it’s impossible. More details of time of day and of the year as well as solar data would help. By the way nice job with the homebrew mag loop antenna.

[@thestingyham1188]

Thank you for your assessment of what can happen. You are mistaken in that you did not take into account that LP contacts from Seoul are actually easier, in this case. Time of year, time of day, the op's ability to track current conditions, and assessment of other signals on the band at the given time, all factored into the determination of where the signal was coming from. If you truly understand how LP works, you must also concede that the way a signal skips along the upper atmosphere during proper LP conditions, as opposed to bouncing between atmosphere and land via SP, makes said contact easier than SP. These were low sunspot conditions in the absence of any storms. Seoul is not an easy SP hit to Europe all times of the year -- especially with few sunspots. Often it is far easier to reach the EU via LP, due to the amount of land in between. SP contacts to the EU come later in the day than this. If you had an understanding of the location, conditions, timing, and signals at that time, you would see what I mean. I also work Italy often via LP and some SP. The contacts from here to Italy are always easier to get.

[@IZ0MTW]

@@thestingyham1188 thanks for your detailed answer. I’m not in your location so for sure you can speak better than me. At first sight I was suspicious by the affirmation and wanted to say my point of view. If that’s the case, nice one then. I want to try mag loop too. What can you say performance wise on 20 and 40? Is it worth to try build one? I would be interested in a loop especially oriented for lower bands due to its small size and S/N ratio. Thanks

[@la5984]

Just curious can u send a postcard from s. Korea please

[@Swampfox10mm]

Sorry, not at this time. Covid is causing our nutty postal service to charge $20 for a single letter to the US.

[@ivvitan]

Maybe I heard you at my Sangean ATS-909X!

[@ronangsr]

I think it's nulled if you are under the antenna, raise it up a few feet on a tripod

[@Bouvier_des_Flemish]

私はあなたの信号を7Mhzで聞いたことが有ります。

[@Frisky0563]

what antenna radio did the other have ?

[@thestingyham1188]

Huge yagi

[@johnjamieson7688]

Perhaps I do not understand the terminology of radio. The earth is only a little less than 25,000 miles in circumference. Assuming your contact is on earth, doesn't that mean the longest contact you could have is 12,500 miles away?

[@Swampfox10mm]

This is HL1ZIX. Great question... I know he was longpath at the time, because he said where he was pointing. Here is your answer: www.onallbands.com/what-is-long-path-in-ham-radio/

[@johnjamieson7688]

@@Swampfox10mm Thanks Derek That answers my question and is very informative!

[@Swampfox10mm]

@@johnjamieson7688 Sure. Longpath contacts are often easier, when possible, despite the much longer distance, because the signal bounces along the atmosphere without hitting the ground and weakening as much. Certain times of the year, depending on where you are working another station, can be better longpath. With a yagi, one soon learns about it. On a dipole or vertical (or loop like this), we may not know which direction unless the person on the other end says where they are pointing. Often times, you might see LP in comments of a spot on the web, for Longpath.

[@thestingyham1188]

Oh, and I just remembered to add that the signal is traveling the long way around the Earth (LP), not the short way. If I were equal distance from his location on the other side of the Earth, then yes, 12,500 miles. The station is much closer than that to my East (let's say around 5,000 miles, to keep it simple). But he was pointing LP to reach me, and that happened to be the only direction open that day. The signal was traveling the long way around to reach me from the West. I kind of explained how this happens in my earlier post. By the way, it's a LOT easier to exploit LP if you are higher up in the air (120 feet or so on top of a building, here).

[@HamRadio200]

That is incredible. How can you tell it was long path vs short path? I understand the orientation of your antenna was pointed long path, but at the wattage you're running, you might have been putting out 5-10 watts in the short path direction, which is enough to talk to the other side of the planet. Just curious. I've never been able to tell long vs short.

[@thestingyham1188]

He said he was working that direction to another person earlier before I recorded, if I remem correctly. And I remember that time of day was usually always LP

[@bushgrad-z3w]

This was so exciting to watch! ZS1002SWL currently listening from Gangwon (not far away).

[@thestingyham1188]

Glad to hear it! Are you Korean?

[@mark6831]

Great job from k2csx

[@rachmielbenberel]

Nice work concerning the contact. However, if you continue making videos such as this one, you should consider not moving the camera as much as you've done here--it detracts from the viewer's enjoyment.

[@thestingyham1188]

It was a cell phone.

[@rachmielbenberel]

@@thestingyham1188 O.K. Fair enough.

[@daveschwarz5279]

I am surprised that you are sitting so close to your loop... apart from the radiated RF affect on your body. Don’t you get any current going back into the radio distorting the TX, l would a least use a 1:1 current choke.

[@thestingyham1188]

There is a torrid choke tied on the feedline. You can see it under the driven loop.

[@thestingyham1188]

I did some research on qrz. These numbers came up from one of the experts, using modeling. Will stay back a bit more. Thx for the note about it: Safe distance vs power level for a continuous carrier on 3 different bands. 40M - 5 watts - 4 feet 40M -100 watts - 7 feet 40M - 1500 watts - 11 feet 20M - 5 watts - 5 feet 20M - 100 watts - 9 feet 20M - 1500 watts - 15 feet 10M - 5 watts - 5 feet 10M - 100 watts - 10 feet 10M - 1500 watts - 22 feet

[@SuperSetright]

@@thestingyham1188 The key word here is ''continuous'' . A single side band signal is peaking at a fraction of the time compared to AM or FM or a constant tone modulated SSB signal. Notwithstanding the above , the mag loop does look a little too close, for my liking. Better to be safe, than to be sorry.

[@redjohn20001]

That is a really smart way of coupling two variable capacitors to tune a magnetic loop.