[Elecraft] OT: Long loop antennas

[Don Wilhelm]

Dave,

LB Cebik has a lot of good information on horizontal loop antennas on his
website www.cebik.com.  Of interest to me is that the vertical pattern for a
horizontal loop has a lot of the energy directed straight up on the
fundamental frequency, but at harmonic frequencies the pattern has a very
low take-off angle making it good for DX.  One moral of my observation is to
build the loop at least a half wavelength on a side at the band you want the
low angle radiation.  Your 190' on a side may not give you a full 'double
sized' loop on 160 but it should have a bit lower angle of radiation than
one that is only a full wavelength perimeter.

Many folks just feed the loop with coax and report good operation - I am
skeptical and besides 190 ft. on a side is non-resonant anyway, so direct
coax feed likely will not work very well.  Open line feeders to a tuner is
always a good choice if you can install it properly - if you have trouble
running open wire or ladder line putting a remote tuner at the feedpoint is
the way to go.

73,
Don W3FPR

----- Original Message ----- 

> Summer is here and time for antenna work.  I have a fair amount of room
and
> am contemplating replacing my 3 element beam and vertical with a long loop
> antenna (to simplify).  I can accommodate a loop up to 190' per side
> (square) at the same height as the beam (45 feet).  I am looking for an
all
> band (160 to 10M) solution. I have been reading the messages on the
> YahooGroups loop antenna reflector, but they seem devoted to "magnetic"
> (short) loops.
>
> Any sage comments from the group?  Do I need a tuner?  Should the tuner be
> at the antenna or the rig?  Any books or articles I should be reading?
>