On Sun, 05 Jun 2005 16:57:03 GMT, GeorgeF
wrote:

I put up an 80 meter full wave loop using about 280’ of #14 wire in
almost a square.

Hi George,

That was certainly a good beginning, but questions abound as we
proceed.

Each end of the loop

How many "ends" does a loop have? This is something akin to how many
sides to a circle.

was soldered to an SO-239 connector.

One is enough, why two (or more, we still don't know how many ends
there are)?

This statement is enough to give pause. If there is more than one 239
inserted inline, it must of necessity break continuity of the loop.
This, then, means that you no longer have a loop, but rather a
fullwave dipole (presuming the loop has 2 ends).

I’m feeding the loop via RG-8 coax, about a 30’ run.

You say nothing of choking the feedpoint, and given the symptoms that
you describe, this sounds like a major omission.

In the 80 mtr band its 8:1 and in the 40 mtr band its 7:1.

Sounds like full wave dipoles (or even multiples). In other words,
consistent with previous descriptions.

My installation is far from ideal.

No one here has it any better, but by degrees. If you can do better
by trying harder, fine, but if there's no way to get the antenna
higher, or to blow away the obstructions....

Of course I can use my MFJ-949 tuner to get a low SWR on any band but by
doing so am I loosing efficiency?

In trying to tune full wave dipoles? Could be, but being so close to
the dirt is probably lowering your antenna's wicked Z to something
easier to tune (your efficiency is already dominated by ground loss).

I also notice that trying to tune the
loop the tuner seems to be very touchy!

Lack of choking at the feed point - or - you are tuning an
anti-resonant antenna.

I have noticed on 20 meters
the loop received on average about 2 S-Units better than my 20 meter
dipole. On 40 meters it receives almost 1 S-unit better than a 160’
randomwire. On 80 meters just slightly better than a 160’ randomwire.
(all antennas I’m comparing are all at about 20’ high).

Now all your previous complaints sound like whining. Do you want a
tuned antenna, or a gain antenna?

BOTH!?

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC