My first magnetic loop for 2m :)
Really simple construction: bent ca. 2mm brass pipe soldered directly to the outside of an SMA plug, inside of the plug soldered to the red wire as “input coil”. Tunable by squeezing the ends more or less close together.
SWR of <1.2 at resonance, not bad. Impedance is at roughly 44+j2 Ohm, also not bad for totally eyeballing it without any prior calculations.
I can reach the nearest 2m relais just fine at 2W, although to be fair I can do the same with a short whip antenna. More testing to follow. Holy shit, this actually works!
Magnetic loops are really beautiful for tuning out noise sources and for doing DX in horizontal polarization. Try some two-meter sideband in horizontal polarization.
Thought it’s just FM on the 2m
144.100 - 144.275 MHz. Calling frequency is 144.200.
2M sideband and VHF DX is a lot of fun. I remember working satellites using 2M/70CM sideband as well.