My first loop antenna is finished! I will
briefly tell you the procedures. Being how this is my first loop antenna,
this is a prototype. I used pine wood cut to 5/8 inches by 3/4 inches. There
are three pieces 12 inches long and another 16 inches long. The squares in
the center are about 3x3 inches and are 3/16 inches thick.
The wire is 23 gauge enameled magnet wire, but you can use what you have
and what looks cool. There are 15 full turns of wire. I drilled 15 small
holes starting 3/8 inch in and at 3/8 inch intervals. The bottom leg
(the 16 inch long) has an extra hole at the bottom so the winding will
start and end on that section of the loop. You will have to spool out
75 feet of wire and thread it all the way through. Be careful that the
wire doesn't kink and you should have a big enough space and two people
to do this job. I did it by myself, but it took a long time to wind
this loop.
After the loop is done, take a piece of wood, or some left over garolite
like I did and drill two countersink holes to attach to the frame and
two more holes for the connection hardware.
I made the base with two pieces of oak wood. One is about 7 inches square
and the other is 4 inches square. Use what you have. Sand, stain and
shellac the wood, then attach them together with 4 flathead wood screws.
Drill a 1/4 inch hole in both the base and the loop and put in a dowel
rod to attach both together. If the dowel doesn't easily go in, sand
it until you get a better fit.
That is about it. They don't take too long to build and they can look
really cool. I will be using this antenna with a two tube radio that
I am building. The radio will have an extra RF stage to compensate for
having a smaller antenna. I will add a link from this page to the
page that has the receiver that will use it.
My next loop will be made from tiger oak, a garolite 3 inch square and
a base like I have now. I will use the same turns but may make the
windings .33 to .35 inch spacing instead of the .385 inch. This will
increase the inductance slightly. I will let you know how I build that
one with better detail. That's all Folks!
