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Full Wave Loop SWR issues

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138BG

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Jul 10, 2019
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Experimenting with a Full Wave Vertically oriented Rectangular Loop on condo balcony. #12 AWG THHN wire fed in the center of one of the short vertical ends with a quarter wavelength matching transformer coax (RG-6, 246/freq x velocity factor), then RG-8X into shack. Feedpoint near 1/2 wavelength above ground. Rectangle ratio is 3 lengths to 1 height. Have been unable to get SWR below 3.5. No analyzer so no idea of actual impedance of loop. Previous antenna in same location, an Inverted V, tuned easily to 1.2 and seemed to work well, made some decent DX contacts. Any thoughts/ideas/advice most welcome. Thanks
 

prcguy

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Jun 30, 2006
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So Cal - Richardson, TX - Tewksbury, MA
A full wave loop has an impedance at resonance around 100 ohms. I would use a broad band 2:1 ferrite transformer/balun to start with, then play with wire lengths to get it working. Having a known good 2:1 transformer will take a major unknown away leaving only wire length and surroundings as the only other variables.

I would also look for an actual balun that matches unbalance coax to the balanced loop and that will help isolate the coax from the loop so the coax is not a radiating part of the antenna.

Experimenting with a Full Wave Vertically oriented Rectangular Loop on condo balcony. #12 AWG THHN wire fed in the center of one of the short vertical ends with a quarter wavelength matching transformer coax (RG-6, 246/freq x velocity factor), then RG-8X into shack. Feedpoint near 1/2 wavelength above ground. Rectangle ratio is 3 lengths to 1 height. Have been unable to get SWR below 3.5. No analyzer so no idea of actual impedance of loop. Previous antenna in same location, an Inverted V, tuned easily to 1.2 and seemed to work well, made some decent DX contacts. Any thoughts/ideas/advice most welcome. Thanks
 
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138BG

Member
Joined
Jul 10, 2019
Messages
46
Resized the rectangle today, shortening the length and increasing the height. It's closer to a 2:1 ratio now rather than 3:1. Also switched to a slightly shorter piece of RG-6 wound as an air core RF choke. Was able to trim and tune down to 1.6 :1, which I'm more than happy with. Made several contacts. Thanks for responding to my post Prcguy
 
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