[Lowfer] Medfer TX Loop Question(s)??

[Brian Helms]

Loop gurus/ Smart people:),


I am working on a loop this weekend to put on the air in the low end of the
medfer band.  After using the rjeloop program to model different loops I
found that I needed big diameter conductor for loop as I had already read
about Bill's experience.  I thought about using multiple #14 wires for my TX
loop but then I found a large piece of shielded multiconductor cable that
was about .75 inches in diameter.  My thoughts are that multiple #14
conductors would not be near as effective or as easy as using the shield on
the multiconductor cable.  If you use multiple small conductors, can you
figure the diameter of each conductor, add them together and figure them as
a single conductor w/t the sum of the smaller coductors diameter?  Would
spacing the conductors out make the antenna radiate better?  I am going to
use the shielded cable for now for it has more surface area and it is a
single cable which makes it easier to put into operation.  The loop that I
modeled for 510khz was approx 6db down from a optimized loop at 185khz.  Is
this correct or did I make a mistake on the calculations?

I hope these are reasonable questions to ask.

Thanks
Brian Helms
KD4RLD
www.qsl.net/kd4rld