Hi folks. I just finished up deploying an AS SAL-30 Shared Apex Loop and my initial observations are that this is by far the best directional antenna on that I have ever used. My experience with directional antennas over the years range from small ferrite and wire loops, modest beverages, Wellbrook K9AY/ALA10/ALA330/DKAZ, phasing various antenna configurations with Quantum, Connelly DXP5, and currently a DXE NCC-1 with phased active whips.
The SAL-30 is the best MW antenna that I have had the pleasure of using. On almost every MW channel I can easily have two stations in the clear, and on many it is no problem receiving 3 or 4 stations. The UNI directional mode is amazing, with just the push of the Flip switch you generally find another station totally dominant. I have found the controller with 8 direction switch to be extremely accurate, making it easy to determine exactly which direction an UnID is arriving from. Another bonus that I discovered last evening while experiencing quite a bit of lightning static, when the pattern was pointed north and the static crashes were extremely subdued to the point of not being an issue. I have also found the performance up to the spec'd 8 mhz of this model to be excellent. In these bands I can null some of the CODAR signals way down, null utes, determine the direction of a weak signal, and significantly peak a signal for best SNR. This afternoon I found that on many HF DX signals, the directionality of this antenna was actually useful up to 15 mHz. On many DX stations bothered by significant long-path echo, I could always eliminate the LP component. On HF above 8 mHz, the directional pattern does not appear to be very useful with strong domestic stations such as the Tennessee SW broadcasters. So far, I am extremely pleased with the performance of this antenna. I was initially very concerned with the cost of the antenna vs performance but I can now say this was money very well spent. One word of caution is deploying the mast on the SAL-30. This is a task for 3 people minimum, and on a totally windless day. With two folks we were able to get 8 of the mast sections up, but had to wait a week to get a third person to help get that last mast section put in. If I can master video and youtube over the weekend, I will look at putting up some MW specific audio/video. 73, Brandon Jordan http://www.swldx.us Fayette County, TN EM55gc WinRadio G33DDC, WinRadio G313-e, RFSpace SDR-IQ, Icom R75, Eton E1 Double KAZ Loop (20×88') with Wellbrook FLG100LN-2 Amplifier DX Engineering DXE-AAPS3 Active Antenna Phasing System Array Solutions AS-SAL-30 Shared Apex Loop _______________________________________________ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com