I used two lengths of PVC pipe to form the horizontal elements of this simple, 10m loop antenna.
It takes me forever to complete some projects. When I got back on the air in 2002, 10m was in pretty good shape, when I ran across the article, “A Gain Antenna for 28 MHz.” It seemed simple enough to build, and I even went so far as to purchase and cut to length two pieces of PVC pipe to support the antenna. Well, time went by, and I never got around to finishing the antenna before the sunspot cycle went south on me.
This sunspot cycle has been notably lackluster, at least up until about a month or so ago. The ten-meter band was rarely open, so I wasn’t really motivated to finish and put up this antenna.
About a month ago, though, noting the more frequent band openings, I finally decided to finish the antenna. I cut the wire and attached it to a Budwig center insulator. Then, I left it laying on the floor of my shack.
Well, today, with the temperatures in the 40s, was the perfect day to get it in the air. I flung a tennis ball over a tree branch in my backyard and hauled it up. I’m finally on 10m with an antenna that should work better than my 30m dipole!
The SWR is 1:1 down in the CW portion of the band and still only 1.5:1 at 28.500 MHz. Not bad, I’d say.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t a whole lot of activity on this afternoon around 3:00 pm when I finally got it in the air. I did manage to work HH2/HB9AMO, though, and a station in UT and one in the Virgin Islands heard me calling CQ and reported as such on ReverseBeacon.Net. Bring on the skip!
Good antenna. I wonder if it would works as well if it is wider than it is tall? On 20 meters that would probably be a better choice since dimensions are essentially double those of 10 meters. Food for thought along with floppy PVC tubing.
The reason the dimensions are as they are is so the feedpoint impedance is 50 ohms. Changing the dimensions will change the feedpoint impedance. Think about a folded dipole. In a folded dipole, you have two, half-wave elements very close to one another, with a feedpoint impedance of 300 ohms.
73!
BUILT WITH A VERTICAL ANTENNA LOOP HORIZONTAL POLARIZATION IS INCREDIBLE INCOME, WITH LOW POWERS, SHE REALLY MAKES A DIFFERENCE.
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