More loops

HF TX loop in the bedroom

Small TX magnetic loop performance continues to astound me. This evening I erected my little loop antenna made with 6mm diameter copper pipe and tuned with a standard 365pF air-spaced variable as used in my regen receivers. The loop has a diameter of just 65cm (about 2m circumference) and is mounted on a piece of PVC pipe as a support. The 365pF is attached to the hi-Z part of the coil with a couple of crock-clips. Matching is with a coupling loop about 1/5th the diameter of the main loop.

The simple tuning unit - a 365pF airspaced variable

Without any effort, apart from the tuning sharpness,  it tunes from 10-28MHz and got loads of spots on WSPR. I then tried with 2W CW on 14MHz and received several European reports via the reverse beacon network. The loop is just resting against a wall in the shack. Overnight on 20m WSPR the best report was from 8338km with 2W indoors. On 10m this morning (July 4th) it is already exchanging WSPR spots with CN8LI despite being orthogonal to him i.e. in the worst orientation, 2W and indoors.

According to my loop calculator the efficiency should be around 12% or 9.3dB down on a "proper" dipole antenna on 14MHz. This is less than 2 S-points difference. Results bear this out. On 28MHz the efficiency is better.

Purists will point out that the crocodile clip connections will have a few milliohms resistance and this will reduce loop performance. At 2W there is no sign of arcing across the plates. The point is with QRP one can get away with simple circuits that would not be possible running 100W.

Going loopy on 10m

Prototype 10m TX loop using 6mm copper pipe

Today I've made a small TX loop for 28MHz CW/WSPR using an odd piece of 6mm copper pipe I had around the place. As I don't want to move the frequency much and the maximum power out will be 5W (usually far less) I have used a small length of twin core mains cable, trimmed to resonance, as the capacitor to resonate the antenna. The loop is matched to 50 ohms with a small coupling loop made out of RG58 coax. Bandwidth is quite sharp suggesting the loop is working as expected.  At the time of writing (early evening)  I've only copied one signal EK6RSC at 3586km earlier in the day and am still awaiting some reports on TX. The loop is mounted on a PVC pipe taped to the back of a chair in the shack.

If successful, the idea will be to put this up in the loft at the new bungalow and use it with WISPY and a small dedicated netbook PC to run 10m WSPR.

Magnetic loop HF TX antennas

Although I have successfully used a large 80m sq vertical wire loop (made with 32 x 0.2mm PVC covered wire) on both 137 and 500kHz, I have never tried a hi-Q small loop on HF transmit. There is a very useful calculator available at http://www.66pacific.com/calculators/small_tx_loop_calc.aspx which suggests a 3m circumference loop using a 5mm diameter conductor - for example small bore copper pipe or a thick coax cable - would have a loss of only 0.9dBd and a bandwidth of 352kHz at 28MHz.  This would comfortably cover both 28MHz CW, data, WSPR and beacons without retuning.

An advantage of magnetic loop antennas is reduced detuning from nearby objects so this antenna, if mounted in the loft space, might make a neat and efficient stealth antenna for 10m. I guess one could even arrange to switch the tuning capacitor remotely so that several sub-bands could be covered. When using QRP power levels, as I do, the high voltages and currents that are encountered in small loops are less problematic. For example, choice of variable or fixed tuning capacitors is less onerous than if using 100W.

http://www.kr1st.com/magloop.htm

KR1ST has some nice information on magnetic loop antennas on his website.  I hope he doesn't mind me linking to the image of his magnetic loop on his site. There is also some useful loop information on the Wikipedia site.

In all, I think I'm missing out (so far) on a whole range of antenna experiments!

LF/MF Loop antennas on transmit

For the last few winters I've used a wire loop antenna on 136 and 500kHz transmit with moderately successful results. Well, considering the extremely low ERP it is better to say excellent results. My wire is not that thick: around 1mm PVC covered multistrand wire and the loop area around 80m square, with the lower part of the wire either very close to, or actually on, the ground.  Using the TX loop calculator at http://www.66pacific.com/calculators/small_tx_loop_calc.aspx the efficiency is around -30dB at 500kHz, so that 5W from the PA would result in around 5mW ERP radiated. My calculations and measurements, with less than ideal loop geometry, suggest the ERP is some 3dB lower at around 2-3mW. At 137kHz the loop is considerably less efficient at around -50dB.

For a small plot with nearby trees I am not sure how well this compares with a small Marconi with a short vertical section (around 6m max) and a horizontal section of around 6m. Anyone know the answer?