Kevin, I've built 2 low loop antennas that are currently in operation. My wife uses one for 80 and 40m regional communications, essentially the whole state of texas plus surrounding states. It is composed of insulated wire with a current balun fed by rg58 and is up about 15 feet and is diamond shape. She uses a K2 /100 with kat100. In general on those bands, it can function nvis mode and provide up to 2 s-units of improvement over my gap challenger vertical on both transmit and receive.
This prompted my other creation for a friend that had just moved into a restricted neighborhood near houston. We created a loop using aluminum electric fence wire and insulators mounted under the eaves of his house, about 8 ft. above the ground. The reason for this was not so much cost but because there are evidently some sort of proximity alarm sensors that use similar materials. Also, even though the wire stretches across the brick facade in front where there are not soffits, it is not visible from the 20 feet away. The wire is fed with several feet of 450 ladder line and a homemade 4/1 balun, The ladderline was cut so as to be run almost to the entrance on the house but not so as to lay on the ground. Tuning is done with an mfj manual tuner and works with a 100 watt ricebox rig. Operation of this antenna is not nearly as good as my wife's but our friends signal rivals that of an attic mounted trap dipole antenna located about 30 miles from there which is owned by a mutual friend. Regional communications on these antennas is exercised every weekday morning at 6am on 80 meters with a group of friends and conditions have ranged from good to unbelievably horrible over the last few weeks. For regional comm. on 80 and 40 I heartily reccomend the loop low down, but 12-18 ft seems to be best. I think it best that the loop be put around the back yard rather than around the house but it's hard to guess what you might get away with if anyone can see it. For dx, there's no beating a vertical in this case, maybe disguised as a flagpole. best regards, Charles wb5izd > 21. Horizontal Loop Antenna (Kevin Shaw) > Message: 21 > Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2005 14:58:05 -0500 > From: "Kevin Shaw" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: [Elecraft] Horizontal Loop Antenna > To: <Elecraft@mailman.qth.net> > Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > I've been thinking about what kind of antenna to put up. With my height and > deed restrictions, I'm quite limited. I've thought about putting up a > horizontal loop antenna. Basically I was planning to run some enameled > magnet wire around the perimeter of the roof (I have no plans on running > more than 10 watts). The wire would lay under the shingles so it can't be > seen. The antenna will be 1 WL long on 80 meters. I'll run coax down to the > K2 + ATU. > > > > This is similar to "The Loop Skywire" described in the November 1985 issue > of QST. Anyone have experience (or see a problem) with this antenna? > > > > Thanks, > > > > Kevin > > N8IQ > > > > _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
