Topband: Loop-family antenna notes

[Larry Molitor]

At 09:19 AM 12/1/00 -0500, Tom Rauch wrote:
>But the bottom line is small loops are mostly a waste of time,
>unless you have one groundwave noise source that you can
>position the loop to null-out. They are worth a try if you have room
>for nothing else and have local noise, but they are useless for noise
>that varies in direction.

In the 38 years or so I've been on 160, I could count on the fingers of one 
hand the number of times a small loop has been better (on DX) than any 
other antenna, including the TX antenna.

That is until about two weeks ago. About that time, the shielded loop that 
has been in place for three years without ever being useful, suddenly 
started working! Turned out that some old local noise sources went away and 
a couple new ones showed up, but very close in direction the remaining old 
source. With the loop set for a groundwave null in that direction, it is 
now providing unprecedented performance. It's always much better than the 
TX antenna now, and even equals the rotatable flag when the DX signal is 
arriving from the same direction as the noise.

Perhaps some of the fame the small loops unjustly enjoy comes from the high 
angle performance they have. The fool thing gives me better than 10 dB 
improvement in signals from W6 and W0. As if I need that!

73,

Larry - W7IUV


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