Small Magnetic Loops:

A Beginner’s Guide
“WOW! This is a very different antenna!”

Dave Wickert, AE7TD

Lake Washington Ham Club November 2018 Meeting
10-Nov-2018
Dayton Hamvention 2017
History
Full Size Loops
Full Size Loops
Nor the Mighty Rhombic Antenna
Small Loop Antennas

 Known as a “magnetic loop” due to the fact that they

work with the magnetic near-fields of the antenna
(more on that in a bit)
 Small in comparison to the wavelength
 Circumference less than λ/10
 If multi-band, then the highest band drives size of the loop
 Smaller relative to wavelength means efficiency suffers
Electromagnetic Waves
(caused by either an alternating electric or magnetic field)

https://www.murata.com/en-eu/products/emc/emifil/knowhow/basic/chapter04-p2
Electromagnetic Waves
(emitted by either an alternating electric or an magnetic field)

https://www.murata.com/en-eu/products/emc/emifil/knowhow/basic/chapter04-p2
What the heck is “near-field”?
 What the heck is “near-field”?

Far-field
Transition Zone
(~λ/2π)
Near-field
( < λ / 10 )

The trick is that within the near-field:

Electric (E-) field drops off with the cubic of the distance
Magnetic (H-) field drops off with the square of the distance
Therefore, within the near-field the magnetic field tends to dominate . . .
What the heck is “near-field”?
What the heck is “near-field”?
Near-field through the
collapsing electric and magnetic fields

Far-field through heat loss and

the propagating EM wave
 General Antenna Model

R Radiation
Efficiency =
R Ohmic + R Radiation

(a well-tuned and engineered dipole has

an efficiency in the high 90%; while a good
base-loaded, bumper-mounted 8-ft mobile
antenna on 80M might be 10-20%)
Trade Offs
Pick two: small, efficient, or broadband
Small = < λ / 10
Broad bandwidth = low Q
Low Q implies more resistive losses
Transmitting small loops
Small + Efficient Where we are at . . .
Receive-only small loops
Small + Broadband
Full-wave loops
Efficient + Broadband
 SWR: 2:1
14.200 – 14.100
(or about 100 kHz)
20M full band is:
14.000 to 14.350 MHz

SWR: 1.5:1
14.175 – 14.125
(or about 50 kHz)

The test antenna was the Chameleon CHA F-Loop, at 0.74 m (2.44 feet) diameter
https://www.qsl.net/kp4md/chafloop.htm
Parts
 Resonant Loop
 Coax (uses shield and center typically connected together
 Metal tubes (larger diameter improves efficiency)
 Minimizes resistive losses (radiation resistance is small, but large
compared to lose resistance)
 Circle is more area possible for given perimeter (but can be other
shapes, e.g. octagon is common to ease formation of the metal tube)
 Coupling Method
 Required as the impedance of the resonant loop is typically 2 to 10
ohms
 Max impendence, max current, lowest voltage at coupling point
 Lowest impedance, lowest current, max voltage is 180o away at the other
side of the loop
 Techniques: coupling loop (what we will show today), gamma match
capacitive, ferrite
Parts (cont.)
 Tuning capacitor
 Air variable, trombone, vacuum variable
 Voltage breakdown point is a big selection factor (arc across and
resulting pitting)  this is typically what drives the power limitations
 Better implementations have reduction gearing to help with fine tuning
 Coupling point and the capacitor placed on opposite sides of the
resonant loop
To get as strong coupling as possible,
you typically bend the loops together

http://aa5tb.com/loop.html
To get as strong coupling as possible,
you typically bend the loops together

http://aa5tb.com/loop.html
To get as strong coupling as possible,
you typically bend the loops together

http://aa5tb.com/loop.html
To get as strong coupling as possible,
you typically bend the loops together

http://aa5tb.com/loop.html
 Polarization
 Vertical (stand it up) – most common; does not
need a ground plane; should be at least one
diameter of the loop from the physical ground
 Horizonal (lay down) – can be done, but requires
same above ground guidelines as a dipole,
i.e. above ¼ λ
 Samples
 Thick piping (good efficiency)
 Gamma match at bottom for coupling
 Mechanical tuning capacitor
at top
 Mount it on a mast
 Warning: Nulls come off the
broadside of the antenna, so
either be careful where it is
positioned, or have a rotator
to spin it to null out signals
 Samples

 Double loop to give more electrical

circumstance (better efficiency
and lower frequencies, e.g.
40M, or 80M)
 Coupling loop hidden inside
casing
 Horizonal polarization
and omnidirectional
 Must be mounted high ( > λ / 4 )

Lots of turns
possible!
 Samples
 Mechanical adjustment of capacitor (top)
 High quality copper for good
efficiency
 Remote tuning to capacitor
mounted on back of mount
 Pros and Cons
 Fast setup – no trees, tall masts, or radials needed
 Needs to be reachable for tuning, rotation (or use
remote controlled motors)
 Low height OK
 1-2+ diameter above ground for vertical orientation
 Horizontal orientation needs same height as dipole ( > λ/4 )
 Magnetic near-field means humans don’t mess with
tuning as much
 But works better away from large metal objects
 Do not position the tuning knob so you have to reach into the
loop to tune
(at least one commercial vendor does this)
 Tuning
 Do not blindly use antenna tuners – need to move the
resonance point
 Listen to the noise floor, look at the S-meter, tune for maximum
noise
 Using a pan adapters lets you tune visually – put the noise
peak in the middle as the “wave” comes into your freq range
 Some vendors are starting to make products to assist, e.g. Alex
Tune
 Follow-up with fine adjustments to SWR in radio tune mode
 This is where having reduction gears on the capacitor helps a bunch,
e.g. the P-Loop has a 6:1 gear reduction within its box
 Summary: Why use a small mag loop?
Excellent portability and efficiency
 It is a good DX antenna
 Nulls are very sharp – broadside off the mag loop
 In-line with the loop you get maximum propagation, and a good
takeoff angle
 Use the high-Q (and the nulls) to:
 Eliminate local QRM
 Eliminate adjacent strong stations (particularly with SSB)
 Difficult to tune – not a good fit for “Search and Pounce”
 Great for fixed frequency uses, e.g. “Running”, SOTA, and
for many digital modes, e.g. FT8, JBCALL, etc.
Commercial Offerings
 Alex loop – focus on portability $400
http://www.alexloop.com/ also at:
https://www.gigaparts.com/ph1ahd-alexloop-walkham.html
 Precise RF Loop – remote tuning and operation + portability $300-$450
http://preciserf.com/
 Chameleon Antenna’s P-Loop (portable, coax) and F-Loop (semi-portable)
https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/cha-floop-plus20
$400-$500 depending on options
 Ciro Mazzoni Automatic Magnetic Loop Antennas
https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/mzz-baby ($2K and up ☺ )
 MFJ 1788 (fixed location) (see Dave Casler’s review and fixes) -- $500
http://www.mfjenterprises.com/Product.php?productid=MFJ-1788
they also offer a $250 receive-only mag loop as well
References
 Presentation by Bob Fleck, W4RAX
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYbKrw8l6JU
(used as the basis for this presentation)
 Several interesting presentations by Dave Casler, KEØOG
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Klg-_vQYbfw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgKzvyeM8lw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZkKfHvyOjo
 Tuning a homebrew mag loop using a toroidal match
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpgwXNwCmm4
 Interesting visualizations of voltage and current flow in a mag loop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUYI81dkEMA
Additional backup slides
Feeding your small mag loop
Add-on fixed capacitor physically snap’ed in
for 40M coverage in parallel with the variable one

Coupling Loop
at the bottom