Ham Operator Forums

I replaced the NC-300 (I have 2 of them now) with a really nice Hammarlund HQ-170.  It never had a clock and I am looking for one (who isn't?)

My loop is basically 300 feet of #14 house wire (black, but RF is color blind) and it is strung between 7 trees in almost a triangular shape.  Why 7 trees, you ask?  Because that's where 300 feet of wire would fit between.  Altitude varies but is about 40 feet up.  That's as far as I could reach with a borrowed ladder.

It is insulated using ceramic dogbone insulators and UV proof cords in each tree.  The trees are tall so I felt that no 2 of them would swing in opposite directions at any one time.  So far, I have been correct.

It is fed with about 50 feet of 450 ohm window line from the middle of one of the longer sections directly to a Tucker T-3000 antenna matching box with an adequate balun inside to handle the balanced load.  It will tune SWR down to 1:1 on all bands, 80 through 10 and I may try it on 160.

Loops are notoriously quiet, noise-wise.  Much less static and local QRN than other antennas I have used here.

It really works well on the Monday Night 20 Meter AM Net too.

I also have a 100 foot doublet, a G5RV in earlier life, but without the hokey twin lead and coax, fed with more 450 ohm window line to an MFJ Differential T Tuner in Studio B, a Johnson Viking II and NC-300.  But an HQ-170 is in the works to replace that 300.  I do have a second NC-300 as backup on the shelf. 

This doublet is actually inside the perimeter of the loop, so there's no telling what kind of interaction is happening.  All I know is both antennas work very well.