RadioBanter - Simple AM Loop Antenna?

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Simple AM Loop Antenna?

Bill wrote:
Hello everyone :) I am looking for detailed plans for an AM loop. I will
...

Bill:

How about a "black hole antenna?"
http://www.unusualresearch.com/Sutton/sutton.htm

JS

Simple AM Loop Antenna?

For reception you can get those little tuning caps they use in
the portables -- about 1 inch square and half an inch thick.
You can usually find them at Radio Scrap -- er Shack.

Irv

John Smith wrote:

Gene Fuller wrote:
Bill wrote:
Hello everyone :) I am looking for detailed plans for an AM loop. I
will be using it only for one frequency 1370AM so I dont want any
tuners just a simple AM Loop antenna for my AM radio. I will have to
solder a 1/8 plug to a 6-8 ft feedline to connect to my radio. It is a
Kaito portable model 1103. I want to built this AM Loop cause I listen
to talk radio alot and the static and other distant stations sometimes
make it hard. I have done alot of looking around on google searches
but have found no real detailed plans I am not sure if I should go
with edge wound or Spiral wound. Any info you guys can give especially
a detailed plan would be greatly appreciated. or maybe there is a
website I may not have seen you would like to suggest. I am sure I
have seen most of them atleast the most popular ones. Anyways thanks
in advance for any input:) Bill

Bill,

Forget about the antenna problem. The bigger challenge is distinguishing
talk radio programming from static and interference, even if the radio
reception is perfect.

8-)

73,
Gene
W4SZ

Personally, I love talk radio. I have, long ago, given up on getting
any real information from major networks ... but then if I had to
listen to rush, or chaps like him, I'd abandon talk radio also!

A tuned loop is the way to go. The only real practical application of
one needs a variable cap in my humble opinion ...

JS

--
--------------------------------------
Visit my HomePage at http://members.shaw.ca/finkirv/index.html
Visit my Baby Sofia website at http://members.shaw.ca/finkirv4/index.htm
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--------------------
Irv Finkleman,
Grampa/Ex-Navy/Old Fart/Ham Radio VE6BP
Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Simple AM Loop Antenna?

Bob Baldwin wrote:
"The easiest way to design the loop is to use a small (and free) program
written by Reg Edwards. Go to his website
(http://www.btinternet.com/~g4fgq.reg/page3.html#S301%22 and download
RJELOOP3.

Glad someone is keeping Reg`s remarkable work available since his too
soon death.

Best regards, Richard Harrison, KB5WZI

Simple AM Loop Antenna?

On Tue, 05 Dec 2006 22:17:18 GMT, Bill wrote:

Hello everyone :) I am looking for detailed plans for an AM loop. I will
be using it only for one frequency 1370AM so I dont want any tuners just a
simple AM Loop antenna for my AM radio. I will have to solder a 1/8 plug to
a 6-8 ft feedline to connect to my radio. It is a Kaito portable model
1103. I want to built this AM Loop cause I listen to talk radio alot and
the static and other distant stations sometimes make it hard. I have done
alot of looking around on google searches but have found no real detailed
plans I am not sure if I should go with edge wound or Spiral wound. Any
info you guys can give especially a detailed plan would be greatly
appreciated. or maybe there is a website I may not have seen you would like
to suggest. I am sure I have seen most of them atleast the most popular
ones. Anyways thanks in advance for any input:) Bill

Get a GE SuperRadio III. It's cheap. About $50. It also has a built-in
8-inch ferrite antenna. Cheapest radio I know of that has that big a
ferrite. Also has a screw terminal on back that accepts an external AM
wire antenna. If that doesn't do it, get the Select-A-Tenna external
loop fro

Simple AM Loop Antenna?

"Bill" wrote in message
. ..
Hello everyone :) I am looking for detailed plans for an AM loop. I will
be using it only for one frequency 1370AM so I dont want any tuners just a
simple AM Loop antenna for my AM radio. I will have to solder a 1/8 plug
to
a 6-8 ft feedline to connect to my radio. It is a Kaito portable model
1103. I want to built this AM Loop cause I listen to talk radio alot and
the static and other distant stations sometimes make it hard. I have done
alot of looking around on google searches but have found no real detailed
plans I am not sure if I should go with edge wound or Spiral wound. Any
info you guys can give especially a detailed plan would be greatly
appreciated. or maybe there is a website I may not have seen you would
like
to suggest. I am sure I have seen most of them atleast the most popular
ones. Anyways thanks in advance for any input:) Bill

Bill,

Refer to the posters who recommended you search the web. Find a tested
design. There are so-o-o-o many variables.

A few notes from my experience; You can couple to an existing radio four
ways (assuming you don't have a ready-made External Antenna jack):

a) Solder a wire onto the tuning capacitor of the existing radio. This will
detune it, so you'll have to adjust the trimmer. This worked wonderfully
well for a cheap battery portable radio that I used on a Navy ship. It has
decent AM sensitivity without anything connected to the wire, but inside the
ship I needed the connection to use a ship's antenna which was available to
me.

b) Wind a few turns of wire around the AM loopstick, connect one end to a
ground and the other end to your external AM loop.

c) Same as above but wind the turns around the whole radio. You probably
get poorer coupling, but you don't need to open the radio.

d) Put the loop near the radio. (See following anecdote.)

Some years ago, having the same need you describe, I built an AM loop with
a random coil and a junk AM radio tuning cap to resonate it. I just dug it
out. The coil consists of 18 turns of hookup wire around the lid of a paper
case, the box that hold ten reams of printer paper. It only tunes the
bottom third of the BC band, so it's probably got too much inductance. I
can couple to a radio merely by putting it next to the radio; the
improvement is most noticeable on weaker stations and the effectiveness
varies wildly with the orientation of the radio and the loop. If I added an
external antenna wire and a ground, things would change.

Simple AM Loop Antenna?

Thank You all for your input. I have decided to Build a tuning AM Loop. It
doesn't seem like it should too big of a project. It would be nice to have
the capability of tuning and I may mess with trying to make it tune some of
the lower Shortwave bands as well. Thanks again for all the input. Great
bunch of people in here :)
Bill

Simple AM Loop Antenna?

"Bill" wrote in message
...
Thank You all for your input. I have decided to Build a tuning AM Loop. It
doesn't seem like it should too big of a project. It would be nice to
have the capability of tuning and I may mess with trying to make it tune
some of the lower Shortwave bands as well. Thanks again for all the input.
Great bunch of people in here :)
Bill

I may mess with trying to make it tune some of the lower Shortwave bands
as well.

Easier said than done. If you use a 240uh inductor and you tweaked it for
minimum
interwinding capacitance your high end frequency (might) reach 1700khz. A
switching
system could be used that switched out some of the turns on your inductor,
this could
get you higher frequencies.
If you started with a 100uh inductor and a 365pf cap this would tune about
850khz
to almost 3Mhz.
BTW do you have the formula to calculate the resonate frequency?
Have tried any dimensions and turns and calculated inductors?
Mike

Simple AM Loop Antenna?

Bill wrote:
Thank You all for your input. I have decided to Build a tuning AM Loop. It
doesn't seem like it should too big of a project. It would be nice to have
the capability of tuning and I may mess with trying to make it tune some of
the lower Shortwave bands as well. Thanks again for all the input. Great
bunch of people in here :)
Bill

Bill,
Start with AM broadcast and work from there, since that is your primary
goal. My smallest loop for AM (2.5 x 3 feet) has a tap for 160, but it
doesn't work very well there. These loops seem to work best on AM
broadcast and below - not as effective on the higher bands. So, take it
in steps, and you will end up with a loop that suits your needs. Plus -
they are lots of fun to experiment with. I have downloaded all of Reg
Edwards programs (I use RJELOOP3 for loops) just in case his website
suddenly goes away. If/when that happens, I will put all of them on my
own website so that everyone will still have access to them.

Regards,
bob baldwin

Simple AM Loop Antenna?