[Elecraft] Good Low Horizontal Loops - questions

[Lyle Johnson]

> ...an antenna need not be resonant to radiate
> efficiently.  This is very true, but such antennas *must* be fed with
> Hi-Z balance line via a tuner...

Sorry, the statement "*must*" is not true.  You can feed any antenna with
any feedline if you are willing to accept the consequences of operation at
frequencies where there are impedance mismatches (the feedline|antenna
interface and the feedline|transmitter interface).  Sometimes you can use
this to your advantage (e.g., a "matching section").

Open-wire high-impedance balanced feedline tends to have lower losses than
coaxial cables because the dielectric is air, and at high SWR (between the
tuner and the antenna) dielectric losses become very important, often
exceeding the resistive (e.g., copper) losses if you are using a tuner.  If
you are not using a tuner, then your transmitter will do whatever physics
dictates it to do given its design and the mismatch.

Remember that just because you have a "match" between the transmitter and
the feedline via the tuner, there is still the issue of losses due to
mismatched impedances at the antenna|feedline interface.  One reason Wayne's
suggestion works so well (toss one end of a wire into a tree, attach the
other end to the KAT2 output on your K2) is that there is, in effect, no
feedline. See the ARRL Antenna Book.

Also see Walter Maxwell's book, "Reflections" (either edition, or the
original series in QST in the early 70s).

Enjoy!

Lyle KK7P