[Elecraft] magnetic loop antennas

[Vic K2VCO]

I googled 'flexible conduit' and what I see looks like BX cable -- made out of a single 
flat piece of metal wrapped in a spiral shape. If this is what you are talking about, it 
would be AWFUL for this purpose -- it would have a very high RF resistance and so be very 
inefficient. There are very high currents in the loop and you have to keep the resistance 
at RF as low as possible -- that's why large-diameter copper tubing is good.

Do you have a link to a picture of the stuff you are looking at?

On 5/20/2013 6:43 PM, Bill Blomgren wrote:
> I saw the great writeup on the magnetic loop antenna and the inventive High Voltage 
> capacitor for tuning the thing. I'm looking at one of them strictly because I'm stuck in 
> an apartment.
>
> The fact it should be good for 100 watts is perfect for what I'm looking at buying.
>
> I'm just wondering about the copper pipe used for the outer loop... I spotted some very 
> reasonably priced flexible conduit that could be used for the "loop" proper.  Do what is 
> necessary to bond the capacitor into the rig, and it would appear to be a reasonable 
> alternative to the rather pricy copper pipe. (They want your first born here for that, 
> and the thieves are busy collecting anything that isn't nailed down.
>
> Thoughts on that for its larger diameter, which should help with the coupling to the 
> rest of the world...

-- 
Vic, K2VCO
Fresno CA
http://www.qsl.net/k2vco/