"A Desperate Situation" All you need is Propagation!

Wow... What a morning for DX!! 40M and 20M alive with DX... I can't believe how good propagation was. I have just set up over here in North West London under my Call M/EI5IX and here in my apartment I use a simple setup with a very simple antenna thrown off the Balcony using 50 watts from an Icom IC-706MK2G and I had the pleasure working into USA, (N5CYK) Canada (VE1LD) and Australia (VK3VCE) just to name a few from the log last night and this morning.

The first antenna I set up here to test if I could receive anything in my new QTH was a very simple antenna to construct, just mobile magnet base which was sitting on top of the Dust Bin with Pl plug connected to a 47ft long wire thrown off the balcony onto the ground. I had the pleasure of working many European and Middle Eastern stations on Friday evening going into Saturday morning. But this was not enough... ;) I knew that the propagation was getting better SO a desperate situation leads to desperate ideas...

As soon as I recognised that signals were getting a lot stronger on the bands on a simple receiving loop I decided to construct a Delta loop for 40M and 20M with an Ugly Balun which was 21ft of coax wrapped around a water bottle. The reason for a Loop as comparsion to a Inverted V or a Dipole was the Low Level of noise received on a Delta Loop. Living in a City has its horrible limitations so with that I got to say to every fellow amateur out there...

"EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE OR OWN SOME SORT OF A DELTA LOOP"

I have some photos of the structure of this simple antenna home-made of course with just items you would normally find in any amateur radio enthusiast box/home "wire, open feeder, sweeping brush handles, a scarf and coax / 2 PL plugs" simple setup and were on air.

I have had so much fun working DX on this antenna with fantastic reports ( 58 into Australia at 09:10UTC) Even for such limited space and resources I am now looking of ways to get this antenna a permanent structure here at my London QTH.

Here are some of the photos of the Crazy Delta loop I constructed.

The ugly Balun and the coax feeder.

One leg of the antenna.

The Right Leg of antenna held by a brush.

View of the coax feeder.

The Famous Ugly Balun.

And of course the famous Dust Bin now with a 2M / 70CM antenna on Top.

You get the Idea... I will say it's not a permanent fixture at the moment but this "Mess" as my flat mate likes to call it has got me back on air.

I hope to work you soon on the bands under M/EI5IX... Best 73's


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