Loop antennas may be constructed in many forms including horizontal full wave loops in square, rectangle or triangle (delta) shapes. They can also be in the vertical plane and are most often in the same shapes with the delta being very popular as it has both vertical and horizontal polarization. The impedance at the loop resonant frequency is approximately 100 ohms but will very slightly on harmonics. Loops are “quiet” antennas compared to verticals and dipoles and are omni-directional. The also exhibit gain on harmonic bands. Once you try a loop antenna you will know why they are so popular with old timers but still a secret to newcomers. Shown below are some typical designs:
Full Wave Horizontal Loop Antenna (a.k.a Skyloop)
This antenna is horizontally polarized and should be mounted as high as possible but works well at low heights of 10-30 feet. They are quieter than a dipole or a vertical, have a broader bandwidth and will usually out perform a dipole antenna.To determine the approximate circumference in feet of a full wave loop antenna use the formula:
1005/Freq in Mhz = length in feet.
The feed point impedance of a full wave loop antenna is theoretically in the vicinity of 120 ohms and requires a 2:1 impedance transformer (for single band loops or a 4:1 balun to match on multiple bands) with 50 ohm line. You will also need a feed line choke or better yet, just get the Hybrid 4:1+1:1 in a single box.
Vertical Delta Loops
Vertical delta loops can be oriented several way but the most popular is to have the “pointy” end at the top (usually a single support) and the lower horizontal ends just out of reach of humans and animals. Best feed point is 1/4 wavelength (246/f(mhz)) from the top point down one side. Vertical delta loops use the same 2:1 baluns as the horizontal loops or 4:1 for multi-band operation.
The lower powered version of our popular CB-1-5000, the CB-1-1500TS Balun is a 50 ohm to 50 ohm, quad core feed line choke designed to provide high choking impedance between a balanced ladder line feed line (zepp, G5RV/ZS6BKW, extended double zepp, etc.) and short 50 ohm coax feed line (to antenna tuner) at a power of 1500 watts PEP from 1.8 to 61 MHz. The CB-1-1500TS is configured as a Guanilla transmission line transformer with balanced outputs (current balun configuration). It is best used when ladder line impedance seen at the end of the ladder line to balun connection is close to 50-150 ohms. Enclosure box is 4″ x 4″ x 2″. Typical choking impedance range is 1K-10K ohms from 1-61 MHz and common mode suppression is 30 dB..
Typical ZS6BKW multi-band antenna with CB-1-1500 or CB-1-5000
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