I've been sorting through my stock of coax cables. If I join together several lengths of the same thickness of 6mm, I could make one length of 70 metres. Perhaps it will be enough to construct a reasonably effective rectangular loop antenna for transmission on the longwave 2190m band.
So let's see.
I could support it vertically from two trees in the garden 20 metres apart, with the vertical plane running N-S. The area enclosed by the loop would be 300 square metres.
After doing some quick calculations, I predict Rrad = 121 micro Ohms, and efficiency = 0.0076%, assuming rf losses = 1.6 Ohms.
In terms of efficiency it will be nearly 4dB worse than my existing longwave Marconi antenna. Another limitation is the loop's bi-directionality, ( Marconi omni-directional ); so radiation broadside ( E-W ) could be 30dB down on end-fire direction ( N-S ).
I wonder if making it will be worth the effort.
Has anyone made a longwave loop antenna of a similar size ?
If so I would be pleased to hear of your experiences with it.
I won't be buying a single 70m length of new coax just yet !
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