2018: Loop antennas for AM broadcast band

[@ItsRael108]

Thanks for you video, well appreciated 🤜🤛

[@attilarivera]

It is almost surreal to see a young person interrested in these sort of things. 😨

[@todderbert]

Very cool! Love that build. Great job.

[@TheGmr140]

nice job man. loop antennas are so cool.

[@Mark300win]

The best video i watched in a while! How you setup the Sdr with a loop antenna is awesome! Im bot sure if you can replicate the same experiment with the HF bands instead of MW!

[@paulschmolke188]

Built one a few years ago. It’s larger than your but works the same way. Very selective antenna and quite directive as well. Yours is nicer looking. Keep at it, exploration is what the hobby’s about. KE5TJ.

[@Francois_Dupont]

yeah its called the "Q" factor. the higher the Q the narrower the bandwidth the antenna is tuned for.

[@Francois_Dupont]

do you know if bunching up the wires all in the same "bunch" would affect the antenna negatively? i meant to say to have the enamel wire together, like in a transformer, instead of separated side by side?

[@hamandshortwaveradioirelan4773]

Nice demonstration

[@ebbay7361]

how about a loop for MW RADIO?

[@megadocket6790]

Does the spacing between the wires matter?

[@4nradio782]

Kudos to you Thomas, for using a proper coupling loop design (for the 50 ohm output) that follows sound practice, such as the approx. 1/5th size of the main loop-- see this informative page on loops: webclass.org/k5ijb/antennas/Small-magnetic-loop-coupling-loops.htm . Also, the sharp peaking is partially due to your wise choice of the ceramic air-variable cap; These are usually higher "Q" than lesser quality capacitors. They are the choice of serious crystal radio builders. By the way, are you familiar with Ferrite Sleeve Loops? I have built a few of these for chasing overseas medium wave (AM band) distant signals. Here's a link to one I constructed: swling.com/blog/2017/01/a-new-approach-to-fsl-antenna-construction/ Keep up the good work with your videos. 73, Guy

[@Francois_Dupont]

?? his isnt a ceramic varicap its the metal plate design.

[@4nradio782]

Yes it *is* ceramic type. The insulating parts like the rotor and stator supports are ceramic, for higher Q. The plates are of course metal. The ceramic term refers to the supporting structure. These types are higher Q than the common epoxy board supports. The end result is better, sharper peaking of tuned signals.

[@Bob-zr6mr]

Great video.

[@artur19846]

One of the best videos about AM loop antennas. I got a question: since it is very difficult to find a variable capacitor, I thought if it is possible to make such a variable capacitor out of foil pipes (the ones we use for cooking in the oven). I even made one, with two pipes of different diameter (they fit in each other perfectly), connected a loop antenna and started experimenting with my Panasonic radio, sliding the smaller pipe in an out. I had checked the capacitance of my capacitor, it varied btw 100 and 700 pf. I checked all the medium wave frequencies but my radio reacted when only I set it to 1240 Khz. there was no station but the signal was amplified so much that the radio wrote "tuned". I don't know why it happened and why my jumbo capacitor didn't work for other medium wave frequencies.

[@icholakov]

Ham radio gatherings are the best places to find old variable capacitors when people empty their old junk boxes. Sometimes homemade variable capacitors can be made using soda cans but that is a separate project.

[@tomjones239]

Claudio Rizzuto ... I used to connect a 120 turn coil of 26awg magnet wire wrapped on a paper towel tube to two 250 foot longwire antennas and place the coil near an AM radio in the daytime and get amazing DX reception.

[@ehababdulburalfakhory801]

WOW ....amazing

[@williamstaylor5449]

Nice illustration.

[@Mark300win]

What is the tuning range of ur capacitor?

[@zach0gr]

I ahve made 3 projects of MW antrennas . The australian loop and 1x1m square x 9 turns of wire , another from a vegetables basket and the word famous An200 tecsun that has about 20 db gain in most of the band but i stoped with that . the remain are not easy to handle Only untuned antennas can work with SDRs!!

[@lespaul-imposter697]

Hi. I have the SDRplay RSP2 Pro. I desparately need a wideband discone antenna for indoor use. Have you heard of such thing?

[@icholakov]

Discones take up space they are not an indoor antenna.

[@lespaul-imposter697]

I was grasping at straws with that question. :-)

[@AndrasBato]

Great!