[TowerTalk] full wave loop height

[John Hudson]

I put my first horizontal loop up last March. It's approx 520' ( could not
squeeze any more length out) and feed with 450 ladder line. Starting at the
shack the 1st corner of the loop (NE corner) is approx 35' up with the
ladder line feed about 10-15 from the corner. That side is approx 140' and
the 2nd corner is on my 55' crankup and usually is at 55'. Corner #3 is
apprx 80' away and is a little higher at apprx 60' then it turns to go
another 130 or so feet dropping to about 40'. Makes one more turn and
anchors at about 45' up in a tree then back to the feed point to tie back
in.

While I have not had the antenna up during a full winter yet, 160 was good
for several hundred miles in the late spring and recently was good a few
hundred miles. But my surprise was the 2nd contact I made on 80 meters last
spring was to So, Africa at about 10:30pm local and I have worked Europe on
many occasions since.

Also I use it on 17m and have worked VK's a few times with good results,
using 500-700 watts also

But I do notice a more favorable receive to the SW and I'm assuming it's due
to the feed point location in the NE corner

But for the most part John I'm happy with the loop at my heights.. doesn't
matter if I would like it higher, I can't get it any higher :)

I will say this, I have a TA-33 with 40m rotatable dipole at 60' and on 40
most times the rotatable dipole gets the better report, not by much but then
depending on the location of the station I get the same report without any
difference. 

It's probably the cheapest all band antenna you can build, if you don't
spend $80 building a air cannon to install your loop!!!! Good luck

Just my perspective..


73

John
KO4XJ



-----Original Message-----
From: towertalk-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:towertalk-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of jim Jarvis
Sent: Friday, September 25, 2009 5:42 AM
To: towertalk at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] full wave loop height


> John Geiger wrote:
>
>> How high does a horizontal loop (the look skywire) need to be for  
>> decent performance? A quick google search revealed that people  
>> were running them at 25 or 30 feet with good results (in their  
>> opinion). I know that high is better, but how high does it need to  
>> be to show real improvement over a dipole?
>>
>> 73s John AA5JG
>>