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.
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Kit Includes noise reduction ring filters for coax cable and AC power line, DC power (from 117XC or equivalent power supply), and 1 snap on filters for T/R relay cable covering RFI range of 1-300 MHz. Quick installation - immediate RFI/noise reduction. No radio mods required.
This kit will help reduce or eliminate:
1. “Hot mic” RFI caused by poor grounding of antennas or common mode currents from linear amps feeding unbalanced (coax fed) antennas without baluns/line isolators.
2. RFI to neighbor’s electronic devices including audio/video systems, computers, telephones, garage door openers, etc.
3. RFI to your other radios, audio/video systems, computers, telephones, etc.
A side benefit is a reduction in noise floor in your receiver depending on the amount of noise being introduced by common mode currents (which are blocked/reduced by the chokes in this kit).
These chokes use a special mix of ferrite core material that is effective in suppressing radio frequency interference from transmitters and high noise floor on receivers.
The split beads beads are easy to use, don’t require modification of the protected equipment and work in almost all cases, even when plug-in filters fail.
Use of the chokes often helps cure SWR problems between transceiver and a linear amp and between transceiver and antenna tuner or direct to antenna. The DC power line choke helps keep common mode current out of the power line which could cause interference to other devices connected to the same power line if not suppressed.
For additional RFI suppression, use a feed line choke (MC-1-3000) at the antenna feed point to suppress common current on the coax feed line and a coax noise filter (like our CMNF-500-50) at the radio end of the coax to further reduce common mode noise picked up by the coax cable braid.If you use a linear amplifier use a Palomar Engineers amplifier RFI kit for additional RFI interference suppression.
