Walter:

I really didn't notice any deficiency with the antenna directly fed by
coax, without any sort of matching transformer. As such, it is definitely
possible the coax became a vertical component of the antenna, and I've
actually had one person suggest I had a coax vertical antenna with a huge
top hat, but personally don't believe that for a minute.

With the ladder line, some will tell you the vertical component of the
ladder line becomes part of the antenna, and while this may be true in
some respect, the voltages on the two conductors of the ladder line are
opposite all of the time, so they should cancel out, resulting in no net
effect for the vertical section of ladder line feeding the loop.
Therefore, the loop pattern should be primarily dependent upon the number
of wavelengths long each of the sides is, and the relative polarization at
the band you are thinking of. Generally speaking, horizontal loops do
pretty well as the frequency increases... and typically are not so fussy
that they cannot be readily tuned with a decent antenna tuner.

Before I put up the poles, I just used a slingshot and a weight to pull a
light but strong twisted nylon line (about the same thickness as a "chalk
line") over or through appropriate trees and used it to pull the insulated
wire in place. The only pole was a wooden 2x6 that supported the feed
corner. With the pole version, nylon ropes hold pulleys that can be
raised from the ground, so I can run the loop around the inside of the
poles, through the pulleys, then hoist the pulleys up to the top of the
poles using the nylon ropes. This gives me the flexibility to lower the
wire to change the length (up to the maximum allowed by the inside
dimension described by the poles) or add a second conductor below or
inside the first one to help broadband the antenna. Art Bell used two
conductors about 4 or 5 feet apart vertically, with the lower one a bit
shorter than the top one. This may have effectively created the same
electrical effect as a 4 or 5 foot diameter element, thus creating a more
broadband antenna than a typical loop already is. Once I get the big loop
up, I'll be playing with different orientations of a second wire to see
how they play...

I'll take pictures and put them on one of my web sites once it's up...

--Rick AH7H

Walter wrote:

Rick,

I would love to see a photo of the setup when you get done. It sounds
really cool.

I have posted some sky-wire questions in a few other groups and some
people have told me that I need to use a matching transformer,

http://www2.hard-core-dx.com/nordicd...eed/feed1.html

to balance the coax and the wire antenna.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to run a sky-wire, but I may wait until this
fall, after the leaves go. It seems easier without all of the leaves
when using a slingshot.

I tied mine up with trout line. I bought went I got the 1 oz. egg
sinkers and figured it should be able to hold up under bad weather.

about the setup, doesn't the ladder line become part of the antenna?

thanks.