YouLoop Magnetic Antenna Portable Passive Magnetic Loop Antenna for HF and VHF,with Low Loss Broadband BALUN

I grew up on a farm with no electric power or running water. We had an old battery pack radio that provided entertainment for the family and back then the whole dial was active with stations from all over North Dakota available for programing, which was, back then radio shows much like TV is today. I now live 30 miles from that old home place but in my house all I can get is one local AM station, and one local FM station (the same station on both) Perhaps it is the steel roof on the house, or the aluminum vaper bairriar on the insulation under the siding, I don't know which but it is annoying. So after seeing reviews on this antenna system, I ordered it. I put it on the end of a 10 foot pole and attached it to my house to hold it up, now I can get all those stations and much more! Using software defined radio on my laptop, I can get shortwave from all over the world with the antenna, as well as air traffic, weather band and tons of other entertaining radio waves. Being an old communications specialist during my 8 years in the US Army I came to love radio communications, so now that I am old and pretty much stuck in my recliner most of the time, this provides a link to my old days, and my old hobby.

My hobby is SWL, and I have expensive, Wellbrook ALA1530LA and MFJ-1886 loop antennas. My MFJ-1886 burned out after the one year warranty period, so I attached a MLA-30+ amplifier to the MFJ, one meter loop. I live in New England, and reliably receive New Zealand from 9,000 miles away in April and May at 15.720 MHz and 11.725 MHz at a SNR of around 25 dBa, although at times it exceeds 30 dBa. It literally blows away in performance my Wellbrook and second MFJ-1886 I purchased to replace the first. The MLA-30+ is my best performing loop antenna for shortwave frequencies by far, PROVIDED it is attached to a one meter loop approximately 1” in diameter. When used with the wire the manufacturer provides, it is not as good as my other loops, and is just O.K.It should be pointed out that from my experience, the MLA-30+ underperforms on medium wave (AM radio band). It is in the medium wave band that the Wellbrook is superior to all other loop antennas I own, and it is even better than my 58’ end fed random wire antenna for AM radio reception.I have done a lot of experimentation in trying different loop materials and diameters with the MLA. That is the fun of owning this antenna, and at a very inexpensive price. Coax works well, as does 6mm copper wire. But through experience, it seems that it works best with a one meter diameter loop.Finally, the MLA-30+ has been reliably performing for over a year, with no problems thus far. It works great with its supplied power injector, but equally as well on the Bias-T of my SDRPlay RSPdx.

Most of the reviews posted for this item are for the MLA30, which is a totally different antenna with a preamp powered by a bias-T. This is a passive antenna. I need to move it around some before commenting extensively on its performance, but so far not impressed.... Moved it away from the metal wall and it performs ok considering its size. Good on FM and vhf, ok but not great on AM. I give it another star for value, portability and ok performance.

I purchased the RTL SDR v3 package with dipole antenna, temporary mount etc. The dipole antenna worked well for what it is however, the upstairs room in my shop has some power lines running about 20 ft. from the window where I attached the dipole. As you can imagine, the static and interference from the power lines kept me from hearing ANY shortwave or amateur signals. My Youloop antenna came the next day. Out of the box, it's was easy to assemble and I had it out my upstairs window hanging off a wooden broomstick in about ten minutes. The very same window with the power lines 20 ft. away. I fired up my SDSharp software and...WOW! I had signals on all the shortwave bands and more. Even my local FM and NOAA weather stations were clearer. I took the Youloop home and hung it on a curtain rod in my bedroom window. I fired everything up and continued to listen to signals from around the world, on multiple bands. Bravo to the guys that came up with this awesome inexpensive multiband low noise antenna!

I have both the original You Loop and this product. There are several differences from the original: Lead cable is worse quality, you should get better. The loop cable holds shape worse than original, but it is acceptable. If you can't get original, this one will serve you. If you can get the original, do it.

Let's be clear, this review is about the K-180WLA and NOT the MLA-30+. First, I had the MLA-30+ several months ago. It never performed correctly. I think it was defective. Not saying it's a bad antenna, just that my unit wasn't up to specs. However, I do believe it is a fantastic little antenna. SO, I decided to go ahead despite the reviews that are very critical of the FM overload problem on the 180WLA and purchase this antenna. I live in a rural area and overloading is not a problem. the 180WLA is attached to my Airspy HF+ Discovery. I am very pleased with this antenna and it's performance with the HF+. It performs just as well as my 132 foot end fed wire, and my YouLoop with an LNA. Sometimes it outperforms these other antennas. It is a good match for the HF+ insomuch as the HF+ is a very sensitive receiver and matches well with active/amplified circuits of the 180WLA. The noise floor is noticeably lower with the 180WLA. I do have the 180WLA mounted outdoors at a height of about 20 feet. Having said all of this, I can see where the 180LNA in an urban environment, or indoors, would be compromised by FM overload and indoor noise. An FM inline filter like the Nooelec Flamingo would probably help this antenna in that scenario. In summary, this antenna performs as well as the MLA-30+. The bias tee with battery is very good and you know your are getting a clean power supply to the LNA on the pole. I use it every night and recharge the battery every few days. It has never gone dead on me. I recommend the 180WLA if you don't have FM overload in your area or you have an inline FM filter you can add to your feed line. The mounting hardware is great and the other accessories add value. Thanks.

First I'll write the good:Once you get the cables set up, it's quite nice. My previous DXing record for SW was Romania, which is about 7100km, but this was over the course of a few months of DXing. Just got the antenna set up, not even on the balcony (a bit too cold I think), and I got Brazil pulled in, which is 6900km from here. Pretty excited to see what else I could pull in, we'll have to see. Can create quite a clean signal from something that would normally have a lot of static (I live in a city, probably has something to do with it).The bad:First off, there is no instructions, nothing, just the components. Although it's well built, it uses an extremely difficult to find type of adapter (I think it's called SMA), it was a huge pain to find a way to convert it to something I could use. It doesn't help that Amazon sells SMA to eighth inch adapters that are actually cable to eighth inch adapters, it was a huge pain. In the end I found a female SMA to I think BNC, cut the BNC side off, and used this weird little adapter that allowed me to screw the wires on. So to get to my radio, I use the SMA cable it comes with, an adaptor that goes to 2 bare wires, the 2 bare wires to an adapter that can be screwed in that has a plug to mono eighth inch, to a mono eighth inch cable. HUGE pain and probably not very sturdy. For such a bad standard cable, they should have at least provided an adapter to something somewhat common, but I think this antenna is mostly made for SDR radio enthusiasts.

This antenna has a reasonable ability to reduce interference and amplify wanted signals - works reasonably well on the Broadcast band, but less so on shortwave bands. Priced a little high for what it is and how it performs