My Wellbrook Loop is up and running about 25 feet from my house. Works great, pleasant surprise for a used unit.
For the past quarter-century, Wellbrook Communications in the United Kingdom set the gold standard for compact magnetic loops used by shortwave listeners. Unfortunately, the company stopped trading in April 2023, and owner Andy Ikin passed away later in the year at age 79. Sadly missed.
Most popular was the ALA 1530 model. Its simple two-transistor amplifier was a proprietary secret and it worked well. I first read about these in my 2004 World Radio Television Handbook, where it received an excellent review. But they were not cheap over here in North America.
When I first got into magnetic loops in 1998, I played around with homebrew designs, but finally settled on the Active Antenna Amplifier from LZ1AQ, which performs really well. But I always wondered how it compare with the Wellbrook.
Now I know. Recently, our local Swap and Shop listed a Wellbrook loop at a reasonable price, so I went for it. I made a lower offer as no one knew if it was still working, I took the risk and it paid off.
Above, you can see my Wellbrook loop mounted on a PVC mast in the woods beside my house.
My Wellbrook Loop – ALA 330S
As it turned out, my “new” loop was the ALA 330S model. Similar to the ALA 1530 but with reduced performance at LF/MF. This variant was manufactured to reduce overload from strong medium wave signals nearby. And, that’s pretty much what it does.
How does it compare with my existing LZ1AQ loops? Pretty well. Signals are lower on medium wave, about -30 dB at 540 kHz and -20 dB at the higher end of the band. But, on shortwave above 5 MHz it really shines. It provides similar SNR to my existing loops. I will continue to play with this antenna for a while, dedicated to my Perseus.
And, although my signals are lower on medium wave, still good enough and no overload from my nearby AM transmitters.
The Wellbrook loop was a great antenna. We at SDRplay used it as the benchmark for comparing loops in some videos a couple of years ago: https://youtu.be/6PTu0g5W9do
Nice, John. Do you use a matched pair of loops for your dual channel recordings, or just the orthogonal arrangement I saw here earlier?
My phased array is the orthogonal LZ1AQ loops, 100 feet apart. Cheers!
Ah, excellent. How long is your Cat. X cable please?
75 feet to each amplifier, shielded CAT7
It is still the industry standard for loops, IMHO. I have one at my remote Haida Gwaii location and it’s survived 2 harsh winters and still going strong. Like it’s brother, the ALA 100LN, it provides very nice quiet reception across the LW MW and SW bands.
Hi John, I have both the the Wellbrook 1530 and the LZ1AQ down here in ZL. Awesome antennas, I must try the dual loop on the LZ1AQ. They are both in need of dragging out of storage to be put to work though! Sad to hear that Wellbrook is no longer.
73
Colin
ZL2FL