A Large Horizontal HF Loop can Work Well for you! (#635)

Comments · 37

• NE

  @NebukedNezzer · 2 years ago

  I have used a 80 meter full wave horizontal loop 20 feet above ground. had it 40 years now. great antenna.

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• DA

  @danielwietchy1037 · 4 years ago

  Like others below... I put up the 80m ARRL Skywave Horizontal Loop (272 ft horizontal )  @15feet (moose antler height)  20 years ago and I just love it.  I put it up as a quiet receiving antenna but experimented as NVIS out to 800 miles.  yes... 800 miles. I feed it with RG8U and "air-coil).  QST November 1985, pp. 20-22 for those interested.. Makes an exceptional receiving antenna for Short Wave too.

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• 3D

  @3dPrint_and_chill · 4 years ago

  One thing I would add is loops are very quiet in urban environments compared to verticals. (In my experience)

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• RO

  @Roadglide59 · 4 years ago

  Many years ago I put up a extremely long horizontal loop circling my 2.5 acres. I supported the loop by attaching small pulleys to 30ft tall sucker rods attached to my perimeter fencing and horse corrals. Put up in a few hours, and attached it to an old Kenwood TS530, through a Heathkit 2060 tuner. (I had read in a antenna book that Loop antenna's were cloud burners unless more that twice the wave-lenghth, once more than twice the wave length, they were "null" avove and below, and sent out a horizontal signal). At around 2am, I had finially finished, decided to play around with tuning and make a notes on the settings (before all the fun automatic stuff). I tuned 20 and for some silly reason turned up the volume. I was hearing Australia and New Zealand like I was there. (I'm in Southern California, high desert) Just for the heck of it, I called out for a contact. Unfortunately, I was called every kind of liar when I told them that I was without an amp.. :) :)  It was amazingly quiet and easy to tune. I'm moving to the Philippines in a couple of months, and a Long Horizontal loop will be my first antenna, possibly will also use a Half wave end fed until my tuner arrives. Great post, thank you. '73. K6TEX

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• DE

  @dezertraider · 1 year ago

  KEEP IT HORIZONTAL TO THE GROUND!I USE A 5% LARGER GROUND REFLECTOR..I USE A 75 OHM MATCHING STUB TO 50 OHM COAX...MAINE TO CA..30-40' ABOVE GROUND.13 YEARS IN MAINE SNOW/ICE STORMS..BEST I EVER USED..

  1

• MA

  @markslayton5042 · 1 year ago

  114” of rain annually here in Forks, WA ;)

• TH

  @TheSilmarillian · 4 years ago

  Great upload indeed

• W4

  @w4mps1964 · 3 years ago

  My loop was 272 ft, up about 40 ft, fed with 450 ohm twinlead to a 4:1 balun near my rig. Loved that antenna and certainly miss it at my current space limited QTH. You can’t go wrong with a full wave 80 mtr loop as an all band solution.<br>73, Marc, W4MPS

• RO

  @robertculver3296 · 4 years ago

  My horizontal loop outperforms my vertical mainly in noise reduction, so the S/N is better. Lots of QRM from a block of flats nearby.<br>Thanks for the podcast 👍

  2

• CH

  @chichimusimus7612 · 4 years ago

  I have used a full wave 80m wire antenna on and off for years. &nbsp;When I lived in VE8 land I had one on a town lot. Rectangle around the house. Higest point was maybe 10m and low corner about 6m. &nbsp;I could work from Alaska to Quebec on 80m. &nbsp;Only problem is that with that much wire up, treelimbs love taking it down occasioanlly duing wind storms.

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• DA

  @davidc5027 · 4 years ago

  I use a loop, fed with ladder line, in the attic and it works well. The wire is around the perimeter of the attic using stand offs. &nbsp;The feed point is around 30 feet high, but the yard slopes a little bit, so the antenna height varies from front to back (25&apos;-30&apos;). (Barefoot 100W) &nbsp;The antenna works great on all bands 6-30 Meters, and drops of a little bit on 40 Meters. I&apos;ve made DX contacts on 80Meters, but there it begins to struggle, and 160 meters is mainly within the USA (lower 48). As David said, loop height is critical on the lower bands like 40, 80, and 160, so the higher you can place the antenna the better. My Elmer modeled my attic loop using EZNEC, and was able to do so using Google Maps. &nbsp;We looked at the radiation patterns through the bands, and are they Omni-directional? No, those patters are not what you are going to get using a vertical, but I&apos;m fortunate not to have any &quot;hard nulls&quot;. Bottom line, if you live in a neighborhood with an HOA where options may be slim, I would recommend a loop antenna fed with ladder line and an antenna tuner. &nbsp;This antenna definitely works better than I thought it ever would, and on the higher HF bands is a really good performer. KI4DRA

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• LB

  @lblerg · 2 years ago

  Interesting the vertical butternut did better!

  3