Topband: 2 wl loop, worth the effort? (Rob Atkinson)

[W7RF Dan]

I put up an 1100 foot horizontal loop about 6 years ago here in Fort 
Collins, CO. out in the clear in my back field held up by four 70 foot 
utility poles spaced about 280 feet apart. Fed by about 220 feet of 450 
ohm window line, back to a Palstar BT-1500A true balanced tuner. The 
loop wire is about 65 feet off the ground
I also have a full size vertical for 80M and an inverted L for 160 over 
a bed of 55 radials 90 feet long fed with 200 feet LMR400. See my QRZ page.

There are times when the loop is better or worse than the verticals for 
80 or 160 but the comments I have heard seem to go (partially) against 
what I have experienced with my loop.
One example: When FT5ZM was on the air, that DX-pedition is about as far 
away from my QTH as possible, yet I heard them for between 12-20 minutes 
every morning and worked them on 160M CW when they were FOUR S units out 
of the noise (on the 1100 foot loop), speaker copy, no headphones 
needed! The loop in this case was two S units better than my inverted L 
and quieter.

So, take that as my real world (not computer modeled, not guessed at 
because I don't have one) experience.
Is there some magic at my QTH? No, I don't think so. But as many details 
I could attend to were done correctly.

Is the loop worth the effort? Only you can choose for yourself. My 
effort was quite a bit of work with huge and heavy utility poles, 
drilling big holes, putting in 1 ton of concrete per pole, the pulley 
system to raise and lower the corners, the numerous times I have 
repaired the feedline connection (we have lots of wind here, up to 100 
mph) and all the little details that go along with it.

Was it worth it for me? Heck yes. I use it on 160-30M and have verticals 
for each of those bands as well for when the signal angle and direction 
or multiple lobes of the loop better suits one antenna over another.

73, Dan W7RF

On 12/2/2015 5:54 PM, topband-request at contesting.com wrote:
> 2 wl loop, worth the effort? (Rob Atkinson)