Topband: Small loop Performance

[Richard (Rick) Karlquist]

On 4/11/2012 5:57 PM, steve.root at culligan4water.com wrote:
> A
  stations? I've worked with a couple of loops based on

  N6RK's designs, and while they have deep nulls and work

  as expectred they also don't seem to produce any usable

  RF from DX stations. I can hear stateside signals with

  >
> 73 Steve K0SR

In this discussion of loops, we have conflated the issue
of loops vs non-loop antennas with the question of the
performance of a particular design like mine or Wellbrook,
etc.  IMHO, a loop is a loop.  My NCJ article merely
describes an improved feed network for a loop.  The loop
is a standard "shielded" loop.  Any decent loop design,
shielded or not, is basically going to do the same thing
in terms of receiving DX or not.  This discussion began
with rumors of rave reviews of the Wellbrook loop.  There
is simply no way that loop has any magic over other good
loop designs, and so any such reviews have no merit IMHO.
Some loops may have advantages over others in terms of
bandwidth, cost, noise added by any active devices,
overload by BCB stations, etc.  However, in terms of pulling
in DX, again, one loop is generally as good as another.
Using the loop design I wrote up in the National Contest
Journal, I've heard DX such as CE/K7CA on my loop, but other people
have built the same loop design and not gotten such good
results.  Assuming they properly duplicated the design,
it is just one of those Your Results May Vary situations.
It would be very unlikely that the Wellbrook or some other
loop would produce significantly different results.

Rick N6RK