Kevin,
You may do better with wire through the shrubs than around the house, if
you can hide it. I know many folks have god luck with supported thin
enamel wire when they have to, but you might try something like The
Wireman #532, which is 18 gauge and black insulated. It will pull well
through trees and shrubs and is hard to see. I used 400' of it for my
loop.
I recently put up a low 400' loop around the perimeter of two city lots
(renting next door during a remodel) and I can hear signals on 160m
where there were almost none before, and can easily work out to about
300 miles. My G5RV is also deaf on 15m but with the loop I worked Novia
Scotia from Northern California on 2.5W.
So the loop works great on 160, where it is about 2/3 lambda, and great
on 15m where it is about 10 wavelengths. It is quieter than the doublet
on all bands, though signals are a little lower on 20m, and it won't
load up on 12m.
With your shorter loop, I would expect you may find different results,
but as long as you observe basic RF and AC line safety, experimenting
with wire antennas is fun and cheap. And f you don't like the lobes,
move the feedpoint.
As for feeding the loop, I would suggest window line to an outdoor balun
such as the BL1 or the new BL2 with its switchable transformer, then to
a bulkhead through the wall. For non-resonant use coax is likely to
have more losses, but it doesn't cost you much to try both.
I posted a longer (!) message to HFPack Yahoo Group, detailing
performance by band and giving info about the mechanical construction
and raising techniques.
73,
Leigh / WA5ZNU
On Wed, 21 Dec 2005 11:59 am, Kevin Shaw wrote:
I've been thinking about what kind of antenna to put up. With my height
and
deed restrictions, I'm quite limited. I've thought about putting up a
horizontal loop antenna. Basically I was planning to run some enameled
magnet wire around the perimeter of the roof (I have no plans on
running
more than 10 watts). The wire would lay under the shingles so it can't
be
seen. The antenna will be 1 WL long on 80 meters. I'll run coax down to
the
K2 + ATU.
This is similar to "The Loop Skywire" described in the November 1985
issue
of QST. Anyone have experience (or see a problem) with this antenna?
Thanks,>
Kevin
N8IQ
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