Re: [IRCA] My Loop Antenna is complete...
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Re: [IRCA] My Loop Antenna is complete...



Here's the Link to the Loop I built...

http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Underground/8585/

It's small, but it was easy to build. I wanted to start small so I could 
prove to myself I could build one. Now that I know how easy it is, I might 
try a bigger one  in the future.

I have it hooked to my Drake R8B with a run of coax.

It peaks on every station I hear, but it doesn't pick up every station I 
hear on the 135' Wire. Signal gains is less, but so is the noise. There's a 
huge difference in what I expected. I thought the stations would just jump 
right out, but they don't.

I also tried it with my SANGEAN ATS 909, but there wasn'r much improvement. 
The SELECT-A-TENNA works much better.

I'll keep digging.

Bert

Ira Elbert New, III
Watkinsville, Georgia
"Proudly Serving You Since 1964!"

<br><br><br>&gt;From: &quot;Steve Ratzlaff&quot; 
&lt;steveratz@xxxxxxxx&gt;<br>&gt;Reply-To: Mailing list for the 
International Radio Club of America&lt;irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx&gt;<br>&gt;To: 
&quot;Mailing list for the International Radio Club of 
America&quot;&lt;irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx&gt;<br>&gt;Subject: Re: [IRCA] My 
Loop Antenna is complete...<br>&gt;Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2005 10:17:28 
-0700<br>&gt;<br>&gt;Congratulations on building your first loop.<br>&gt;Is 
there a URL for this particular loop design you used?<br>&gt;How is the loop 
coupled to the radio, and what radio did you try it with?<br>&gt;You need to 
determine the tuning range of the loop. You may need to add or<br>&gt;remove 
turns to work with the particular variable capacitor you have, to 
get<br>&gt;the loop to work throughout the BCB.<br>&gt;With the capacitor 
plates fully meshed (the low-frequency end of the tuning<br>&gt;range) 
slowly tune the radio until you notice the noise peak; you may 
need<br>&gt;to rotate the capacitor to make sure you're hearing the peak. 
The peak means<br>&gt;the loop is tuned to resonance with the loop winding 
and the variable<br>&gt;capacitor. Ideally the low frequency end will be at 
or below 530 kHz. Rotate<br>&gt;the cap so it's fully open, and find the 
upper tuning resonance<br>&gt;point--again, it should be at or above 1700 
kHz. It's not likely that a<br>&gt;single cap and loop will cover the full 
530-1700 kHz tuning range, though.<br>&gt;And the tuning peak is generally 
not as pronounced at the upper end as at<br>&gt;the lower end. If you're 
unable to find either the upper or lower end of the<br>&gt;tuning range, 
then start with the capacitor at half setting, find the peak,<br>&gt;then 
slowly work up and down from there. If you have no peak at all, 
then<br>&gt;something is wrong with the loop or the connection to the 
radio.<br>&gt;Keep in mind that the radio's automatic gain control (agc) 
will also tend to<br>&gt;even out a difference between a strong signal and a 
weak signal, in an<br>&gt;attempt to make them the same level. But tuning 
the loop to resonance should<br>&gt;always give a noticeable peak in the 
signal.<br>&gt;<br>&gt;IRCA offers two items you should have--the paper 
&quot;DXer's Technical Guide&quot;,<br>&gt;4th edition, 2004--available from 
Phil Bytheway's IRCA Bookstore; and the<br>&gt;complete list of IRCA 
Reprints on a CD, available from Lee Freshwater. The<br>&gt;Reprints CD has 
many loop articles on it; and the Tech Guide has a whopping<br>&gt;33 pages 
devoted to loops. If loops weren't useful, so many articles over<br>&gt;the 
years, and a number of very successful commercial loops wouldn't 
have<br>&gt;come about. Many people have successfully built their own 
loops--there's no<br>&gt;reason your loop can't end up as a successful 
project too.<br>&gt;<br>&gt;Good luck, and please spend more time evaluating 
your new loop before giving<br>&gt;up on 
it.<br>&gt;Steve<br>&gt;<br>&gt;-----Original Message-----<br>&gt;From: 
irca-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<br>&gt;[mailto:irca-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On 
Behalf Of Ira Elbert New, III<br>&gt;Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 2005 8:17 
AM<br>&gt;To: ABDX@xxxxxxxxxx; am@xxxxxxxxxxx; 
irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx;<br>&gt;dxlogs@xxxxxxxxxxxx; 
am@xxxxxxxxx<br>&gt;Subject: [IRCA] My Loop Antenna is 
complete...<br>&gt;<br>&gt;<br>&gt;and I am not very impressed. Here's the 
one I built from the DXer's<br>&gt;Toolbox...<br>&gt;<br>&gt;First of all 
cut two pieces of 2  inch X 1 inch timber, each piece measuring<br>&gt;25 
inches long.  Half along each of these legs cut a piece out of the 
legs<br>&gt;exactly the size of the other leg, so that the two legs can  be 
screwed<br>&gt;together in the form of an X. Then cut 4 pieces of  timber 6 
inches long,<br>&gt;these are screwed on the end of each  leg to form feet, 
the primary wire<br>&gt;coil is also wound around  these four 
feet.<br>&gt;<br>&gt;Firmly fix in place one end of the  120 foot length of 
wire to the centre of<br>&gt;the frame, where the  two legs cross, feed the 
wire to the end of one of the<br>&gt;legs,  and wind it around the four feet 
for 18 turns, then feed the<br>&gt;remaining wire back to the centre of the 
frame using the same  leg as where<br>&gt;the wire began, this is most 
important, both  ends of the wire must go from<br>&gt;the winding coil to 
the frame  centre along the same leg. Affix a tuning<br>&gt;capacitor 
salvaged  from an old radio to the centre of the frame, where the<br>&gt;two 
  legs cross, using glue or whatever, I use two small nails  
hammered<br>&gt;into the legs, so positioned to hold the tuning  capacitor 
in place. Then<br>&gt;cut the wire ends to make a neat  connection to the 
tags on the tuning<br>&gt;capacitor and solder the  wires in 
place.<br>&gt;<br>&gt;I used the VC sent to me by Mike Stonebridge and used 
20 Guage wire.<br>&gt;<br>&gt;I tried it last night after I finished it and 
while it does display a bit of<br>&gt;direction, the signal leaves a lot to 
be desired. Even local stations were<br>&gt;off by several dB's. I am going 
to go try it in the daytime in a few<br>&gt;minutes, but I thought I would 
post this. Any suggestions?<br>&gt;<br>&gt;Ira Elbert New, 
III<br>&gt;Watkinsville, Georgia<br>&gt;&quot;Proudly Serving You Since 
1964!&quot;<br>&gt;<br>&gt;<br>&gt;_______________________________________________<br>&gt;IRCA 
mailing 
list<br>&gt;IRCA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<br>&gt;http://dallas.hard-core-dx.com/mailman/listinfo/irca<br>&gt;<br>&gt;Opinions 
expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the<br>&gt;original 
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expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original 
contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its 
editors, publishing staff, or officers<br>&gt;<br>&gt;For more information: 
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