A Great Find on E-Bay

The Grahn Active Magnetic Indoor Aerial was once a mainstay in the editor’s shack. Until that is, I lost them in a house move, together with other accessories. I was, therefore, very happy to recently find one for sale on e-Bay. The aerial is of an older type and has been fairly heavily used (see photographs). These units have a reputation for high quality and good performance on MW. 

The aerial is of the active magnetic type and consists of a base control unit (GS2) with Ground, BNC and Power connections. A number of ferrite modules were available for this, and the maker still advertises them on their website. 

Newer versions of them, that is, together with brand-new base units.

I just did not remember just how compact and lightweight these modules are when compared to some of my much heavier ferrite bars, from other makers, such as BAZ.  

My internet bargain included the following vintage modules, which easily connect, and rotate, at the top of the control unit:

LW2 (50-250kHz)

LW3 (75-400kHz)

MW2 (400-1800kHz), and

MW3 (850-4000kHz)

Over the long Jubilee Bank Holiday weekend, I am planning to undertake some VLF monitoring, because this links in with an article about time signal stations I have in the ether pipeline for RadioUser.

I will also take a look at the Medium Wave modules and report back on how well they work with my two main receivers, the Lowe HF225 and the AOR AR7030. They should be made for each other since they have the affinity of being around the same age.

Does anyone out there have any experience with this kind of antenna? Drop me an e-mail if you do.

http://www.grahn-spezialantennen.de/index.html

(GW | 310522)