On 19 Feb 2005 17:33:29 -0800, "jimbo" wrote:

Well, for example, if I wanted a chance on 40-160 meters, I would need
a fairly long dipole, maybe 80 feet on each "wing". But maybe a square
"loop" with four turns only 10 feet on a side would also work?

Hi OM,

Anything will work, if only to boil an egg. Your problem with a small
loop (and for 160M this so constitutes one) is in the proportion of
losses. If you do your absolute best, you may enjoy 20dB down from a
full size design. If you do better, the loss may not be that bad.
Nearly every successful 160M design that has been crowed about here
was a vertical.

Efficiency is correlated to area, not windings. We've had design
contests here in attempts to crush as much wire into the smallest
footprint to achieve parity with a full size design. As I recall, a
half sized antenna was about as good as it got before you went over
the cliff of diminishing returns.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC