Testing 40m full wave loop antenna with ladder line for VHF!

Some time back I have been able to work one station with the cross band repeater of International Space Station using my 40/10m combination dipole antenna. That was probably odd harmonic resonance on VHF and UHF bands as the uplink is on 145.990 MHz and downlink on 437.800 MHz. Wanted to know how the newly built full wave loop antenna with ladder line for 40m is performing on the VHF band as a high odd harmonic resonance.

Decided to test first on VU2CSR repeater frequency. The repeater is just at about 4 km from here. Though I usually have high noise on VHF frequencies at night, the full wave loop antenna did not pick up any noise, as expected for full wave loops. Repeater could be accessed with low power from the base station and the repeater tail was also very strong, almost full scale on the signal strength indicator. SWR measured using my cross-needle SWR meter was about 2.3:1.

Test was repeated on VU2MJJ repeater located at about 30 km, on a hill. Though there was access, there were no segments of display noted on the signal strength indicator. Usually I get full segment display on the indicator for VU2MJJ repeater with my CP22E VHF antenna. Similar result was] noted on VU2EDJ repeater as well. Though the noise level was low with the full wave loop antenna for VHF, it cannot be used for accessing repeaters other than the nearby VU2CSR repeater for any practical purpose. That too, will be on low power, accepting the risk of about 2.3 SWR. I did try listening to a high elevation pass of International Space Station as well, with the 40m full wave loop antenna. I could not hear any station, though I felt that my signal was being relayed back by ARISS near the time of closest approach. It is possible that no one was on the ARISS frequency being a working day here. The pass was at around 11 am local time.