TopBand: Rectangular loop

[Robert g. Flory]

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Hello Topbanders,

Peter, WW2Y had a rectangular loop on 80 meters years ago which made him a
presence on the band at that time.  I think the vertical sections were
around 40 feet, so it was quite stretched out.  The bottom wire was only 15
or 20 feet off the ground.

We split it in two and made the verticals a half-wave apart, and called it
the bracket.  like   [     ] .  We were then able to change the pattern to
a bidirectional end-fire for working stations in other directions.  It was
a pretty good antenna.  In the DX contests we frequently had 80m scores
more like a multi-multi than the multi-single we entered.

The bracket was retired when Peter and I built his 6-element square
inverted-L array which brought him to within an s-unit of the 2-element
yagis at  120 feet of several local contest stations to Europe, but which
was vitually untouchable for the really long haul stuff.  No part of this
antenna is higher up from the ground than 40 feet.

Scaled to 160 meters, the rectangular loop seems to require 2 supports
almost  100 feet high.  This would be enough to put up a 4-square or
rectangular array of inverted Ls which would almost certainly stomp the
loop, being unidirectional.  The only advantage of the loop is that it
would take less space and wire.

I had a rectangular half-loop fed against ground on Top Band with 45 foot
verticals which was quite competitive, and required only 2 60 foot trees to
support. 

73, Rob K2WI



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