Topband: receive loop

[Walter Miller, AJ6T]

Jon,
You are on the right track.  I have had good results on 160 meters with 
a 5 foot square shielded loop made of RG59 coax (shield split open at 
the top) supported inside PVC electrical tubing and junction boxes.  
This is an old design found in several books, including ON4UN's  
"Low-Band DXing" (2nd edition page 7-28).  I recently constructed a 
second loop, and found I needed about 560 pF for resonance at 1.825 MHz 
(400 pF is suggested in the ON4UN figure).  This is a very easy antenna 
to construct.  With my old TS850 the shielded loop did not come alive 
until I added an external preamp, but the internal preamp in my new K3 
provides adequate sensitivity.  Just last night on Topband this antenna 
brought in good signals from SM5EDX, OH3SR and OM3DX here on the west 
coast.  This DX season is off to a great start and I hope to work you on 
160 meters.

73, Walt, AJ6T

jonathan white wrote:
> Hi Topbanders.
> I have been slowly putting together a 160mtr station,for dx purposes 
> I have now got a 65` vertical dipole as per EI7BA and the late W4RNL.
> Which  suffers from noise on receive.
> The question is as I don't have enough space for a K9AY, or flag/pennant.
> So I wonder If the group could give me there thoughts on a mag Loop 
> /preamp,for top band
> I have made a 4`square tuned loop with a delta shaped pick up loop for 
> 80mtrs which was a revelation and could hear stateside with it , my 
> thought was to make one a bit larger for topband,but I would like some 
> advice.
> My Radio is a Flex3000 with a quad core 2.8gig processor.
>                                  Regards Jon G8CCL
>
>