Topband: QST Jun 06 RX Loop

[Donald Chester]

>From: "Ford Peterson" <ford at cmgate.com>

>I may just have to build one of these.  Since my "dead iron pile" behind 
>the shed is already filled with fantastic antennas that simply don't work, 
>I'm hoping somebody else takes the arrows in the back, builds one, and 
>reports back with either confirmation of claims, or complete disgust.  
>Possibly more important than confirmation of claims would be to measure the 
>output of the loop.  The author never mentions output.  My guess is that it 
>would be on the order of -25 to -30 dBi, possibly even worse.


I did with the K6STI loop from Sep 95 QST.  I found it to be nowhere near 
the miracle low-noise rx antenna the authors claimed.  It does outperform my 
other rx antennas on rare occasions, but most of the time it is near the 
bottom of the list in comparison.  I put a lot of effort to get everything 
exactly balanced and all the dimensions exact, and feel that it was largely 
a waste of time.  Since it is now built, I have kept it, but if I had it to 
do over again, I wouldn't build another one.  One thing it did, after such 
disappointing results, was to motivate me to put up a beverage, which works 
extremely well in 90% of the cases.

I have a rotatable shielded loop made from RG-59.  It gives mediocre 
performance indoors, but it is useful in nulling out line noise interference 
when taken outside well away from all the metal in and around the shack.

Don k4kyv