Saturday, November 7, 2015

Horizontal loop preparations

Situation of the antenna at google maps
Due to a damaged wire and flapping ladderline last year there was a need to change things on the horizontal loop. I build this loop every year for the winter season. When writing about that in April this year there were some useful comments and e-mail I got regarding the subject. I decided to choose antennawire from Elektrodump for the radiating wire this year. This antennawire consists of 3 stainless steelwires of 0,3mm and 4 brass-copper wires of 0,3mm, all wires are covered with UV resistant plastic. The stainless steel wires makes it strong but are not really good radiators for RF. I will take 2x 84m wire in parallel which gives me a total of 2,4mm copper wire to radiate. That equals the copperwire I used in the previous years with good result. Since I got some old cutting board from my wife a few years ago I made another ladderline center isolator which is lighter then the PVC pipe used. Besides that I made holes in the isolator to weave the ladderline through and made holes to fasten the nylon ropes which I weave through the ladderline against slapping in the wind. Hopefully weather and time allows me to set the whole loop up again today. If my signal is breaking your S-meter on 80m you know I have the loop up again ;-)


6 comments:

Paul Stam PAØK said...

Hallo Bas, we gaan het horen. Succes met het opzetten ervan. 73 Paul PC4T

PE4BAS, Bas said...

Hallo Paul, hij staat er weer. Maar helaas zit alles bijna potdicht. Voeren van een QSO is niet makkelijk, zelfs niet met de loop. Was al een beetje aan het twijfelen over de werking, maar zullen de condities wel zijn. 73, Bas

Photon said...

Great fun, Bas! I hope you run some occasional (or regular!) WSPR tests, to see how well it works. I wonder how high you have the wire, or are you simply looking for NVIS, where height is less important?

PE4BAS, Bas said...

Hello John, I'm just looking for NVIS as it is important for some upcoming local contests. It performes well on distances till 1500km. Above that depends on propagation. Sometimes it equals the vertical sometimes it's a lot better. I've been experimenting with the height last few years but 7m is best for NVIS from my point of view. So there you have it, 7m is the height of the wire. I have done WSPR tests in the past but will do again this week. 73, Bas

Hans said...

Hallo Bas,
De lage banden zijn op dit moment gewoon slecht. Dus je moet even wachten maar dan barst ook bij jou het kabaal los.
Succes, 73 Hans, PE1BVQ

PE4BAS, Bas said...

Hallo Hans, DX condities zijn inderdaad niet zo best. Voor NVIS heb jhe echter niet veel condities nodig ;-). 73, Bas