Colin,

I've never used one but worked a guy using one a couple months ago on 40 
meters.  I'm in PA and he was somewhere in New England but he was 20 over S9 
and I was amazed when he told me what he was running.  He had not only a 
competitive signal, but an outstanding one.  As you say, he couldn't really 
move from that frequency without readjusting, but the thing worked 
remarkably well.  As you might imagine, we spent most of the QSO discussing 
the merrits and drawbacks of that antenna.  Sounds like a fun and worthwhile 
project.  73,  Lou WA3MIX
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "colin McDonald" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2011 6:11 PM
Subject: magnetic loop antennas?


>I have a couple questions for the list regarding magnetic loop antennas.
> Firstly, has anyone used them on HF?   I'm speaking of the small
> transmitting loops that are made in a square and use a capacitor on one 
> side
> to tune to resonance.
> And, if so, what sort of results has anyone found with them?
> Also, has anyone on list built one using a coaxial stub capacitor?
> Check out this website:
> HTTP://www.standpipe.com/w2bri/
>
> he's got a very straight forward, step by step description of how to build 
> a
> magnetic loop antenna from copper plumming supplies, and using a piece of
> coax as a capacitive stub.
> The antenna looks exceedingly easy to build, and his claims, as well as
> others, say the 3.5 foot square loop will perform as well as a half wave
> dipole on whatever band you tune it for...of course, as long as the loop's
> circumphrence is something less than a quarter wave on that band...for
> instance, this loop is 14 feet all around and therefore is less than a
> quarter wave on 20M.  I've heard allot of great things about the magnetic
> loop type antenna...of course it's only draw back is that it has an
> extremely narrow band width...something like 20 to 30KHZ.
>
> anyway, check out that website and tell me what you guys think.
>
> 73
> Colin, V A6BKX