On 10/14/2015 1:34 PM, rickman wrote:
I just read the wikipedia article on small loop antennas and it seems I
was laboring under a misapprehension. I thought receiving loops were
"magnetic" because they were shielded (this is often stated in various
web pages about constructing such loops). But the wikipedia article on
small loop antennas says the nature of a small loop is to not be very
sensitive to the E field in near field.

So if the shield has little to do with rejecting near field electrical
noise, what does the shield do? A lot of antenna designs make a big
deal of the shield. So I assume it must be a useful addition to the
small loop antenna for some purpose.


I bought a "Pixel" shielded magnetic loop from Pixel. It included a 30db
LNA. It works better than my dipoles for receive on the 40 meter band on
up. I guess I should be clear. I don't have 6 meters, so I am talking
about 40, 20, 17, 15, and 10. The SNR is better than my dipoles on all
these bands. It is significantly worse on 75 and 160.

It was well worth the money. It is probably the best 400 bucks I have
ever spent on ham radio.

I just bought a used FTDX-3000. It has a special coax connector just for
a receiving antenna. I can switch receive antennas on the front of the
radio. A nice feature.