Home made magnetic loop antenna

by George Hardesty
(Carrier Mills , Il , USA)

I have seen many adds for commercial magnetic loop antennas 300 dollars and up in price. I didn't want to spend that much money on an antenna that might just end up being advertising hype!

But looking at them I thought ... if they work, there must be something in the circuity I didn't understand. That put me off for years.

I finally ran into the right guy. I told him my quandary. He (K9GHD) said he had home-brewed several on the spot when he was on the road and staying in motels. He talked me through one with a demo.

The next night, I built my first one with a 26 inch aluminum bicycle wheel and a dollar capacitor from an old receiver. Total cost: ONE dollar!

My magnetic loop antenna tuned from 10 meters to 20 meters inclusive. Yes, CB also!

While it was sitting on my bed and I was running through the tuning to see how far it would go, I'd send a question mark and call sign on a frequency. On key up on ten meters, a Hawaiian ham came back to me on ten meters with me using 25 watts!

My QTH was Southern Illinois! Moral of story is: if you see something that "trips your trigger", explore the web all about it. My one dollar antenna is the equal of MFJ's any day!

KA9YCB
Southern Illinois
P.S. Pictures at a later time.