[TenTec] 80 meter loops

[ac5e at comcast.net]

Stuart, we have also used low horizontal loops for FD - and I think we could have gotten an award for WAA. Worked All Alabama - or Arkansas - or Louisana, Georgia, west Tennesse, and the Missouri bootheel. And not a lot else on the wires. And it's really hard to share a tribander between CW and SSB stations. 

Of course, your vicinity has a lot better soil conditions than our impermiable clay, where conductivity is officially 2ms and usually measures less than 1. That surely accounts for some of the difference. 

For FD we have had a lot better results with the same amount of wire up as Vee's or "half rhombics."  Of course they are directional but not so directional you can't cover North America with three antennas. The first year we put a pair of Vees and a dipole up for FD at my farm we placed fifth or sixth in 2A, which isn't bad considering the shortage of operators. 

Check the Hattiesburg Amateur Radio Club (W5NA or K5PN) FD results for the last 10 years or so. It did not matter what the conditions were, or how few operators we had, we always placed quite well. Whether the ionosphere cooperated or not. 

73  Pete Allen  AC5E

> Pete, using a greater than one wave 80m loop on 20m band, we have had more
> than 500 miles on first skip during Field Day.  This was a horizontal loop
> up 20 feet high.  We have used one band loops which are multiwavelength for
> 40m, and for 15/10m for several Field Days.  They seem to fill in the lobes
> on harmonic bands when the ionospherics are working well.  No
> directionality.  They work best for us, fed in a corner.   Symmetrical ones
> seem to outperform rectangular, or diamond shaped ones.  Of course we are
> sitting in Central part of U.S., and have equal shots to both coasts from
> our elevated location on a hill.
> 73,
> Stuart Rohre
> K5KVH
> 
> 
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