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Following my exile to another radio station, I'm back at Malin Head Radio again.

However my extensive LF antenna system came down in a recent gale and I have not had a chance to restore it to service again. All is not lost, at least I can hear some stations on an indoor 1 metre loop with a differential loop amp. The following stations have been heard over the previous weekend.

G3KEV, G3YXM, G4GVC, MM0ALM.

I managed to get on the LF 80 metre net last Sunday evening, for a very short while before rushing off for my night duty. It might be of interest to note that I was using an antenna of about 2 feet high, well short of a metre high , sitting on the work bench, consisting of the base matching coil from my LF set up and a 2 foot by 1 foot piece of cooking foil wrapped over a

piece of perspex , for the top hat. The coil has 38 turns wide spaced over one foot , diameter , 6 inches. Originally I used this almost as a joke to listen on 80 metres, since I have no outside antennnas at present. I was astounded to get a responce

on 80 metres and have now worked a number of station on 80 m. Yesterday and today I worked quite a few stations on 40 m.

To match to 80 m , the tx tapping was 11 turns up and the coil tap was 17 turns up. On 40 m , tx 12 turns up and coil

14 turns up.

The reason for mentioning this is , it has made me re-think about heavily loaded antennas for 136 khz. Perhaps before I put up my usual big long wire antenna for 136 khz I might have a go at a micro helical top loaded antenna. Will keep the group informed of any progress.

73's Finbar EI0CF and glad to be back at Malin Head Radio.