Do you think it is possible for a more true comparison to compare the quartz resonated wire antenna
against he same wire resonated conventionally by an inductor regarding field strength and 3dB BW?

Hi Clemens and group,

here is the promised extension of my tests, for better comparability merged with the first results (my post on the reflector from 20190418):

Having no VLF quartz yet, I made some preliminary tests with a randomly available HC-6-U quartz, QRG 2434 kHz, wavelength 123 m.

• TX: Sythesizer Schomandl MG100M, 300 Hz ... 100 MHz, smallest step 0.1 Hz, Ri = 50 Ohms, P = 10 dBm, output tied to first leg of quartz, alternatively direct to the antenna wire
  
• RX: Perseus SDR with an active rod antenna on my garage, fed by a solar system, no external wire connections, air-line distance 100 m to my shack
• Antena wire: 2 m or 4 m, laid out in the shack, tied to second leg of quartz, alternatively direct to the TX output
• alternatively antenna wire only resonated by two roller plus one fixed inductors in series, fed directly from the TX output
  

Results with 2 m antenna wire:

• with quartz resonator: fres = 2,433,908.8 Hz, RX level at resonance = - 63,1 dBm, - 3dB-bandwidth = 48.3 Hz resulting in Q = 50391
• without quartz resonator: RX level = - 85,4 dBm resulting in a gain of 22.3 dB with quartz
• comparision: my 13 m T-Marconi with top load 4 x 33 m, tuned to 2434 kHz and fed by the synthesizer with 10 dBm results in a RX level of - 32.1 dBm ;-)
• with inductive tuning at 2,434,000 Hz: RX level = - 60.1 dBm resulting in a gain of 3dB compared with quartz. -3 dB-bandwidth = 249 kHz resulting in a loaded Q = 9.8
  

Results with 4 m antenna wire:

• with Quartz resonator: fres = 2,433,773.6 Hz, RX level at resonance = - 59 dBm. - 3 dB-bandwidth = 49.4 Hz resulting in Q = 49376
• without quartz resonator: RX level = - 75.4 dBm resulting in a gain of 16.4 dB with quartz
• with indctive tuning at 2,234,000 Hz: RX level = - 57.3 dBm resulting in a gain of 1.7 dB compared with quarz. - 3 dB-Bandwidth = 390 kHz resulting in a loaded Q = 6.2

With all tests there was no additional resistive matching at the TX output. The tests at resonance showed the usual unbalance between lower and upper - 3 dB-points. With L-tuning the upper is further away from the resonance frequency than the lower. With quartz-tuning this effect is contrawise and of course absolutely much lesser accented. At a first glance L-tuning offers advantages due to its comparable huge bandwidth and the higher fieldstength at the RX site but this could shrink if you really go down to VLF frequencies, very short antennas and short distances. According to the author´s claims the quarz resonated system is usable for short range communication only and there the Q of L-tuned antennas will also grow to high values as well as the losses in the tuning circuit.

As soon as my ordered XTALs will arrive I´ll make further tests in the 4 kHz-range. If the results happen to differ very much from the preceding tests at 2.4 MHz I´ll report about it.

73 es Happy Easter,

Tom, DK1IS