On Wed, 14 Oct 2015 20:38:23 -0400, rickman wrote:

I hope you realize that your experiment is not at all conclusive since
wrapping the duct tape around your loop changes many things other than
just adding a shield. Those other effects may or may not improve any
given loop antenna.

Yep. However, wrapping did improve the SNR a few dB, which is a sure
sign that I must have done something right.

Do you understand the details of how such a shield should work? The
link you provided gives several conflicting opinions on this including
one very detailed post which claims there is little or no suppression of
the E-field, rather it is only the nulls that are useful.

It gets worse, I just found this link, which says my explanation
doesn't work:
http://www.w8ji.com/magnetic_receiving_loops.htm
What little is mentioned about shielded loops claims that it does not
suppress the E-field and details how skin effect makes it work. I
gotta work through this again to make sure I understand it.

It was finding posts like this that have made me doubt the suppression
of the E-field by the shield.

Yep. The author of the above article definitely agrees with that. It
may take me a while before I agree, but only after I understand how a
shielded loop really works.



--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558