TABLE OF CONTENTS

22.1 Receiving Antennas

22.1.1 The Beverage Antenna
22.1.2 K6STI Loop
22.1.3 EWE Antenna
22.1.4 K9AY Loop
22.1.5 Flag and Pennant Antennas
22.1.6 A Receiving Loop for 1.8 MHz
22.1.7 Active Antennas
22.1.8 Receiving Antennas Bibliography

22.2 Direction-Finding Antennas

22.2.1 RDF by Triangulation
22.2.2 Direction-Finding Antennas
22.2.3 Direction-Finding Arrays
22.2.4 RDF System Calibration and Use
22.2.5 A Frame Loop
22.2.6 A Ferrite-Core Loop for 160 Meters
22.2.7 A Simple Direction-Finding System for 80 Meters
22.2.8 The Double-Ducky VHF Direction Finder
22.2.9 A Combined Yagi — Interferometer VHF Antenna
22.2.10 A Tape-Measure Element Yagi for 2 Meters
22.2.11 Direction-Finding Bibliography

Antenna Fundamentals   1-1

 Chapter 22
Receiving and Direction-
Finding Antennas

22.1 Receiving Antennas

The following introduction is excerpted from the sec- systems have been developed and used over the years, such
tion “Introduction to Receiving Antennas” written by Robye as loops and long spans of unterminated wire on or slightly
Lahlum, W1MK, in ON4UN’s Low-Band DXing. above the ground, but the Beverage antenna seems to be the
Separate antennas are necessary because optimum re- best for 160 meter weak-signal reception. The information in
ceiving and transmitting have different requirements. For a this section was prepared originally by Rus Healy, K2UA.
transmit antenna, we want maximum possible field strength A Beverage is simply a directional wire antenna, at least
in a given direction (or directions) at the most useful elevation one wavelength long, supported along its length at a fairly
(wave) angles. We cannot tolerate unnecessary power loss in low height and terminated at the far end in its characteristic
a transmit antenna, because any amount of transmitting loss impedance. This antenna is shown in Figure 22.1A. It takes
decreases signal-to-noise ratio at the distant receiver. its name from its inventor, Harold Beverage, W2BML.
A receiving antenna on the other hand has a different Many amateurs choose to use a single-wire Beverage
design priority. The goal is obtaining a signal that can be because they are easy to install and they work well. The
read comfortably, which means having the greatest possible drawback is that Beverages are physically long and they do
signal-to-noise (S/N) and signal-to-QRM ratio. Receiving require that you have the necessary amount of real estate to
antennas providing the best performance can and will be install them. Sometimes, a neighbor will allow you to put up
different under different circumstances, even at the same or a temporary Beverage for a particular contest or DXpedition
similar locations. There is no such thing as a universal “best on his land, particularly during the winter months.
low-band receiving antenna.” Beverage antennas can be useful into the HF range,
Typical low band receiving antennas like the Beverage but they are most effective at lower frequencies, mainly on
require more space that most hams have available. In recent 160 through 40 meters. The antenna is responsive mostly
years, computer modeling has enabled the development of to low-angle incoming waves that maintain a constant
small loops and arrays that provide meaningful improve- (vertical) polarization. These conditions are nearly always
ments in receiving ability without requiring large areas or satisfied on 160 meters, and most of the time on 80 meters.
overly specialized construction techniques. As the frequency is increased, however, the polarization
and arrival angles are less and less constant and favorable,
22.1.1 THE BEVERAGE ANTENNA making Beverages less effective at these frequencies. Many
Perhaps the best known type of wave antenna is the amateurs have, however, reported excellent performance
Beverage. Many 160 meter enthusiasts have used Beverage an- from Beverage antennas at frequencies as high as 14 MHz,
tennas to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio while attempting to especially when rain or snow (precipitation) static prevents
extract weak signals from the often high levels of atmospheric good reception on the Yagi or dipole transmitting antennas
noise and interference on the low bands. Alternative antenna used on the higher frequencies.
Receiving and Direction-Finding Antennas   22-1
Figure 22.1 — At A, a simple one-wire Beverage antenna
with a variable termination impedance and a matching 9:1
autotransformer for the receiver impedance. At B, a portion Figure 22.2 — Signal velocity on a Beverage increases with
of a wave from the desired direction is shown traveling height above ground, and reaches a practical maximum at
down the antenna wire. Its tilt angle and effective takeoff about 10 feet. Improvement is minimal above this height.
angle are also shown. At C, a situation analogous to the ac- (100% represents the velocity of light.)
tion of a Beverage on an incoming wave is shown. See text
for discussion.

signal flowing in the other direction, as we will see, becomes

Beverage Theory a key part of the received signal.
The Beverage antenna acts like a long transmission As the wave travels along the wire, the wave in space
line with one lossy conductor (the ground), and one good travels at approximately the same velocity. (There is some
conductor (the wire). Beverages have excellent directivity if phase delay in the wire, as we shall see.) At any given point
erected properly, but they are quite inefficient because they in time, the wave traveling along in space induces a voltage in
are mounted close to the ground. This is in contrast with the the wire in addition to the wave already traveling on the wire
terminated long-wire antennas described earlier, which are (voltages already induced by the wave). Because these two
typically mounted high off the ground. Beverage antennas are waves are nearly in phase, the voltages add and build toward
not suitable for use as transmitting antennas. a maximum at the receiver end of the antenna.
Because the Beverage is a traveling wave, terminated an- This process can be likened to a series of signal genera-
tenna, it has no standing waves resulting from radio signals. tors lined up on the wire, with phase differences correspond-
As a wave strikes the end of the Beverage from the desired ing to their respective spacings on the wire (Figure 22.1C).
direction, the wave induces voltages along the antenna and At the receiver end, a maximum voltage is produced by these
continues traveling in space as well. Figure 22.1B shows part voltages adding in phase. For example, the wave component
of a wave on the antenna resulting from a desired signal. This induced at the receiver end of the antenna will be in phase
diagram also shows the tilt of the wave. The signal induces (at the receiver end) with a component of the same wave in-
equal voltages in both directions. The resulting currents are duced, say, 270° (or any other distance) down the antenna,
equal and travel in both directions. The component travel- after it travels to the receiver end.
ing toward the termination end moves against the wave and In practice, there is some phase shift of the wave on the
thus builds down to a very low level at the termination end. wire with respect to the wave in space. This phase shift re-
Any residual signal resulting from this direction of current sults from the velocity factor of the antenna. (As with any
flow will be absorbed in the termination (if the termination transmission line, the signal velocity on the Beverage is
is equal to the antenna impedance). The component of the somewhat less than in free space.) Velocity of propagation
22-2   Chapter 22
 Figure 22.4 — These curves show the voltages that appear in
a Beverage antenna over a period of several cycles of the
wave. Signal strength (at A) is constant over the length of the
antenna during this period, as is voltage induced per unit
Figure 22.3 — This curve shows phase shift (per wave- length in the wire (at B). (The voltage induced in any section
length) as a function of velocity factor on a Beverage an- of the antenna is the same as the voltage induced in any
tenna. Once the phase shift for the antenna goes beyond ­other section of the same size, over the same period of time.)
90°, the gain drops off from its peak value, and any increase At C, the voltages induced by an undesired signal from the
in antenna length will decrease gain. rearward direction add in phase and build to a maximum at
the termination end, where they are dissipated in the termi-
nation (if Zterm = Z0). The voltages resulting from a desired
signal are shown at D. The wave on the wire travels closely
with the wave in space, and the voltages resulting add in
on a Beverage is typically between 85 and 98% of that in free phase to a maximum at the receiver end of the antenna.
space. As antenna height is increased to a certain optimum
height (which is about 10 feet for 160 meters), the velocity
factor increases. Beyond this height, only minimal improve-
ment is afforded, as shown in Figure 22.2. These curves are
the result of experimental work done in 1922 by RCA, and re- Performance in Other Directions
ported in a QST article (November 1922) entitled “The Wave The performance of a Beverage antenna in directions
Antenna for 200-Meter Reception,” by H. H. Beverage. The other than the favored one is quite different than previously
curve for 160 meters was extrapolated from the other curves. discussed. Take, for instance, the case of a signal arriving
Phase shift (per wavelength) is shown as a function of perpendicular to the wire (90° either side of the favored direc-
velocity factor in Figure 22.3, and is given by: tion). In this case, the wave induces voltages along the wire
that are essentially in phase, so that they arrive at the receiver
 100 
θ = 360  − 1 (Eq 1) end more or less out of phase, and thus cancel. (This can be
 k  likened to a series of signal generators lined up along the an-
where k = velocity factor of the antenna in percent. tenna as before, but having no progressive phase differences.)
The signals present on and around a Beverage antenna As a result of this cancellation, Beverages exhibit deep
are shown graphically in A through D of Figure 22.4. These nulls off the sides. Some minor sidelobes will exist, as with
curves show relative voltage levels over a number of periods other long-wire antennas, and will increase in number with
of the wave in space and their relative effects in terms of the the length of the antenna.
total signal at the receiver end of the antenna. In the case of a signal arriving from the rear of the
Receiving and Direction-Finding Antennas   22-3
 Figure 22.5 — At A, azimuthal patterns of a 2-l
(solid line) and a 1-l (dashed line) Beverage
antenna, terminated with 550-W resistor at 1.83
MHz, at an elevation angle of 10°. The rearward
pattern around 180° is more than 20 dB down
from the front lobe for each antenna. At B, the
elevation-plane patterns. Note the rejection of
very high-angle signals near 90°.

antenna, the behavior of the antenna is very similar to its transmitting antenna (which is mounted higher off the ground
performance in the favored direction. The major difference than a Beverage, which is meant only for receiving), the ter-
is that the signal from the rear adds in phase at the termina- minated Beverage has a reduced forward lobe compared to
tion end and is absorbed by the termination impedance. Fig- its unterminated sibling. The unterminated Beverage exhibits
ure 22.5 compares the azimuth and elevation patterns for a about a 5 dB front-to-back ratio for this length because of the
2-l (1062 foot) and a 1-l (531 foot) Beverage at 1.83 MHz. radiation and wire and ground losses that occur before the
The wire is mounted 8 feet above flat ground (to keep it above forward wave gets to the end of the wire.
deer antlers and away from humans too) and is terminated
with a 500-W resistor in each case, although the exact value
of the terminating resistance is not very critical. The ground
constants assumed in this computer model are conductivity of
5 mS/m and a dielectric constant of 13. Beverage dielectric
performance tends to decrease as the ground becomes better.
Beverages operated over saltwater do not work as well as
they do over poor ground.
For most effective operation, the Beverage should be
terminated in an impedance equal to the characteristic im-
pedance ZANT of the antenna. For maximum signal transfer
to the receiver you should also match the receiver’s input im-
pedance to the antenna. If the termination impedance is not
equal to the characteristic impedance of the antenna, some
part of the signal from the rear will be reflected back toward
the receiver end of the antenna.
If the termination impedance is merely an open circuit
(no terminating resistor), total reflection will result and the
antenna will exhibit a bidirectional pattern (still with very
deep nulls off the sides). An unterminated Beverage will not
have the same response to signals in the rearward direction
as it exhibits to signals in the forward direction because of
attenuation and re-radiation of part of the reflected wave as it
travels back toward the receiver end. Figure 22.6 compares
Figure 22.6 — Comparing the azimuthal patterns for a
the response from two 2-l Beverages, one terminated and 2-l Beverage, terminated (solid line) and unterminated
the other unterminated. Just like a terminated long-wire (dashed line).

22-4   Chapter 22
 Figure 22.7 — A two-wire Beverage antenna that
has provisions for direction switching and null
steering in the rear quadrant. Performance im-
proves with height to a point, and is optimum for
1.8-MHz operation at about 10 to 12 feet. Parts
identifications are for text reference.

If the termination is between the extremes (open circuit screens for their ground terminations.
and perfect termination in ZANT), the peak direction and in- As with many other antennas, improved directivity and
tensity of signals off the rear of the Beverage will change. As gain can be achieved by lengthening the antenna and by ar-
a result, an adjustable reactive termination can be employed ranging several antennas into an array. One item that must
to steer the nulls to the rear of the antenna (see Figure 22.7). be kept in mind is that by virtue of the velocity factor of the
This can be of great help in eliminating a local interfering antenna, there is some phase shift of the wave on the antenna
signal from a rearward direction (typically 30° to 40° either with respect to the wave in space. Because of this phase
side of the back direction). Such a scheme doesn’t help shift, although the directivity will continue to sharpen with
much for interfering skywave signals because of variations increased length, there will be some optimum length at which
encountered in the ionosphere that constantly shift polarity, the gain of the antenna will peak. Beyond this length, the
amplitude, phase and incoming elevation angles. current increments arriving at the receiver end of the antenna
To determine the appropriate value for a terminating re- will no longer be in phase, and will not add to produce a
sistor, you need to know the characteristic impedance (surge maximum signal at the receiver end. This optimum length is
impedance), ZANT, of the Beverage. It is interesting to note a function of velocity factor and frequency, and is given by:
that ZANT is not a function of the length, just like a transmis-
l
sion line. L= (Eq 3)
 100 
4 − 1
 4h   k 
Z ANT = 138 × log   (Eq 2)
 d  where
where L = maximum effective length
ZANT = characteristic impedance of the Beverage = l = signal wavelength in free space (same units as L)
terminating resistance needed k = velocity factor of the antenna in percent
h = wire height above ground
d = wire diameter (in the same units as h) Because velocity factor increases with height (to a point,
as mentioned earlier), optimum length is somewhat longer
Another aspect of terminating the Beverage is the quality if the antenna height is increased. The maximum effective
of the RF ground used for the termination. For most types of length also increases with the number of wires in the antenna
soil a ground rod is sufficient, since the optimum value for system. For example, for a two-wire Beverage like the bidi-
the termination resistance is in the range of 400 to 600 W for rectional version shown in Figure 22.7, the maximum effec-
typical Beverages and the ground-loss resistance is in series tive length is about 20% longer than the single-wire version.
with this. Even if the ground-loss resistance at the termina- A typical length for a single-wire 1.8-MHz Beverage (made
tion point is as high as 40 or 50 W, it still is not an appreciable of #16 AWG wire and erected 10 feet above ground) is about
fraction of the overall terminating resistance. For soil with 1200 feet.
very poor conductivity, however, (such as sand or rock) you
can achieve a better ground termination by laying radial wires Feed Point Transformers for
on the ground at both the receiver and termination ends. These Single-Wire Beverages
wires need not be resonant quarter-wave in length, since the Matching transformer T1 in Figure 22.1 is easily con-
ground detunes them anyway. Like the ground counterpoise structed. Small toroidal ferrite cores are best for this applica-
for a vertical antenna, a number of short radials is better than tion, with those of high permeability (µi = 125 to 5000) being
a few long ones. Some amateurs use chicken-wire ground the easiest to wind (requiring fewest turns) and having the
Receiving and Direction-Finding Antennas   22-5
 and Impedance Matching for more information. The ARRL
Handbook and the chapter Receiving Antennas of ON4UN’s
Low-Band DXing book are also good sources of more infor-
mation on winding toroidal transformers

Practical Considerations
Even though Beverage antennas have excellent directive
patterns if terminated properly, gain never exceeds about
–3 dBi in most practical installations. However, the directiv-
ity that the Beverage provides results in a much higher signal-
to-noise ratio for signals in the desired direction than almost
any other real-world antenna used at low frequencies.
A typical situation might be a station located in the US
Northeast (W1), trying to receive Top Band signals from
Europe to the northeast, while thunderstorms behind him
in the US Southeast (W4) are creating huge static crashes.
Instead of listening to an S7 signal with 10-dB over S9 noise
and interference on a vertical, the directivity of a Beverage
will typically allow you to copy the same signal at perhaps
Figure 22.8 — Constructing the feed point transformer for a S5 with only S3 (or lower) noise and interference. This is
single-wire Beverage. See text for details. certainly a worthwhile improvement. However, if you are in
the middle of a thunderstorm, or if there is a thunderstorm in
the direction from which you are trying to receive a signal, no
best high-frequency response (because few turns are used). Beverage is going to help you!
Trifilar-wound autotransformers are most convenient. There are a few basic principles that must be kept in mind
Most users are not concerned with a small amount of when erecting Beverage antennas if optimum performance is
SWR on the transmission line feeding their Beverages. For to be realized.
example, let us assume that the ZANT of a particular Beverage 1) Plan the installation thoroughly, including choosing
is 525 W and the terminating resistance is made equal to that an antenna length consistent with the optimum length values
value. If a standard 3:1 turns-ratio autotransformer is used at discussed earlier.
the input end of the antenna, the nominal impedance transfor- 2) Keep the antenna as straight and as nearly level as
mation 50 W × 32 = 450 W. This leads to the terminology of- possible over its entire run. Avoid following the terrain under
ten used for this transformer as a 9:1 transformer, referring to the antenna too closely — keep the antenna level with the
its impedance transformation. The resulting SWR on the feed average terrain.
line going back to the receiver would be 525/450 = 1.27:1, 3) Minimize the lengths of vertical downleads at the ends
not enough to be concerned about. For a ZANT of 600 W, the of the antenna. Their effect is detrimental to the directive pat-
SWR is 600/450 = 1.33:1, again not a matter of concern. tern of the antenna. It is best to slope the antenna wire from
Hence, most Beverage users use standard 9:1 (450:50 W) ground level to its final height (over a distance of 50 feet or
autotransformers. You can make a matching transformer suit- so) at the feed point end. Similar action should be taken at
able for use from 160 to 40 meters using eight trifilar turns of the termination end. Be sure to seal the transformers against
#24 AWG enameled wire wound over a stack of two Amidon weather.
FT-50-75 or two MN8-CX cores. See Figure 22.8. 4) Use a noninductive resistor for terminating a single-
Make your own trifilar cable bundle by placing three wire Beverage. If you live in an area where lightning storms
3-foot lengths of the #24 AWG wire side-by-side and twist- are common, use 2-W terminating resistors, which can sur-
ing them in a hand drill so that there is a uniform twist about vive surges due to nearby lightning strikes.
one twist-per-inch. This holds the three wires together in a 5) Use high-quality insulators for the Beverage wire
bundle that can be passed through the two stacked cores, where it comes into contact with the supports. Plastic insula-
rather like threading a needle. Remember that each time you tors designed for electric fences are inexpensive and effective.
put the bundle through the center of the cores counts as one 6) Keep the Beverage away from parallel conductors such
turn. as electric power and telephone lines for a distance of at least
After you finish winding, cut the individual wires to 200 feet. Perpendicular conductors, even other Beverages,
leave about 3⁄4-inch leads, sand off the enamel insulation and may be crossed with relatively little interaction, but do not
tin the wires with a soldering iron. Identify the individual cross any conductors that may pose a safety hazard.
wires with an ohmmeter and then connect them together 7) Run the coaxial feed line to the Beverage so that
following Figure 22.8. Coat the transformer with Q-dope it is not directly under the span of the wire. This prevents
(liquid polystyrene) to finalize the transformer. White glue common-mode currents from appearing on the shield of the
will work also. See the chapter Transmission Line Coupling coax. It may be necessary to use a ferrite-bead choke on the

22-6   Chapter 22
feed line if you find that the feed line itself picks up signals null-steering capability exists in the opposite direction with
when it is temporarily disconnected from the Beverage. the receiver connected at J2 and the termination connected
8) If you use elevated radials in your transmitting antenna at J1.
system, keep your Beverage feed lines well away from them The two-wire Beverage is typically erected at the same
to avoid stray pickup that will ruin the Beverage’s directivity. height as a single-wire version. The two wires are at the same
height and are spaced uniformly — typically 12 to 18 inches
The Two-Wire Beverage apart for discrete wires. Some amateurs construct two-wire
The two-wire antenna shown in Figure 22.7 has the ma- Beverages using “window” ladder-line, twisting the line
jor advantage of having signals from both directions available about three twists per foot for mechanical and electrical sta-
at the receiver at the flip of a switch between J1 and J2. Also, bility in the wind.
because there are two wires in the system (equal amounts The characteristic impedance ZANT of a Beverage made
of signal voltage are induced in both wires), greater signal using two discrete wires with air insulation between them
voltages will be produced. (The April 2006 QST article “A depends on the wire size, spacing and height and is given by:
Cool Beverage Four Pack” by Ward Silver, NØAX, describes
a four-directional array created from a pair of two-wire  2
69 4h  2h 
Beverages at right angles.) Z ANT = × log  1+    (Eq 4)
e d  S  
A signal from the left direction in Figure 22.7 induces  
equal voltages in both wires, and equal in-phase currents flow where
as a result. The reflection transformer (T3 at the right-hand ZANT = Beverage impedance = desired terminating
end of the antenna) then inverts the phase of these signals resistance
and reflects them back down the antenna toward the receiver, S = wire spacing
using the antenna wires as a balanced open-wire transmission h = height above ground
line. This signal is then transformed by T1 down to the input d = wire diameter (in same units as S and h)
impedance of the receiver (50 W) at J1. e = 2.71828
Signals traveling from right to left also induce equal volt-
ages in each wire, and they travel in phase toward the receiver
end, through T1, and into T2. Signals from this direction are Beverages in Echelon
available at J2. The pattern of a Beverage receiving antenna is dependent
T1 and T2 are standard 9:1 wideband transformers ca- on the terminating resistance used for a particular antenna,
pable of operating from 1.8 to at least 10 MHz. Like any two as was demonstrated at the extremes by Figure 22.6. This
parallel wires making up a transmission line, the two-wire compared the patterns for a terminated and an unterminated
Beverage has a certain characteristic impedance — we’ll call Beverage. The pattern of even a poorly terminated Beverage
it Z1 here — depending on the spacing between the two wires can be significantly improved by the addition of a second
and the insulation between them. T3 transforms the terminat- Beverage. The additional Beverage is installed so that it is op-
ing resistance needed at the end of the line to Z1. Keep in mind erated in echelon, a word deriving from the fact that the two
that this terminating resistance is equal to the characteristic wires look like the parallel rungs on a ladder. For a practical
impedance ZANT of the Beverage — that is, the impedance 160 and 80 meter setup the second Beverage wire is parallel
of the parallel wires over their images in the ground below. to the first Beverage, spaced from it by about 5 meters, and
For example, if Z1 of the Beverage wire is 300 W (that is, also staggered 30 meters ahead. See Figure 22.9.
you used TV twin-lead for the two Beverage wires), T3 must The forward Beverage is fed with a phase difference
transform the balanced 300 W to the unbalanced 500 W ZANT of +125° such that the total phase, including that due to the
impedance used to terminate the Beverage. forward staggering, is 180°. This forms the equivalent of an
The design and construction of the reflection transformer end-fire array fed out-of-phase, but it takes advantage of the
used in a two-wire Beverage is more demanding than that natural directivity of each Beverage. Figure 22.10 compares
for the straightforward matching transformer T1 because the pattern of a single 1-l 160 meter Beverage that is sloppily
the exact value of terminating impedance is more critical for terminated with two Beverages fed in echelon. The Beverages
good F/B. See the Receiving Antennas chapter in ON4UN’s in echelon gives a modest additional gain of almost 2 dB.
Low-Band DXing for details on winding the reflection trans- But where the two Beverages in echelon really shine is how
formers for a two-wire Beverage. they clean up the rearward pattern — from an average about
Another convenient feature of the two-wire Beverage is 15 dB for the single Beverage to more than 25 dB for the two
the ability to steer the nulls off either end of the antenna while Beverages.
receiving in the opposite direction. For instance, if the series Even at a spacing of 5 meters, there is very little mutual
RLC network shown at J2 is adjusted while the receiver is coupling between the two Beverage wires because of their
connected to J1, signals can be received from the left direc- inherently small radiation resistance when they are mounted
tion while interference coming from the right can be partially low above lossy ground. If you adjust for a low SWR (using
or completely nulled. The nulls can be steered over a 60° (or proper transformers to match the feed line coaxes), the phase
more) area off the right-hand end of the antenna. The same difference will depend solely on the difference in length of the

Receiving and Direction-Finding Antennas   22-7

 Figure 22.11 — Two ways of feeding the two-Beverage ech-
elon array in Figure 22.9. On the left, a feed system good for
one frequency; on the right, a “cross-fire” feed system good
for 1.8 and 3.6 MHz. For this system we want a phase shift
due to the coax length of +116° at the back Beverage A. The
Figure 22.9 — Layout of two 160 meter 1-l long Beverages
angle f is thus 180° – 116° = 64° long on 160 meters. In the
in echelon, spaced 5 meters apart, with 30 meter forward
system on the right, a 64° length on 160 meters becomes
stagger. The upper antenna has a 125° phase shift in its feed
128° long on 80 meters. So with the phase-inverting trans-
system.
former the net phase shift becomes 53° on 80 meters, a rea-
sonable compromise. (Courtesy W8JI and ON4UN)

two coaxes feeding the Beverage wires. Figure 22.11 shows

a wideband feed system designed by Tom Rauch, W8JI, as a
“cross-fire” feed system. The 180° wideband phase-inverting
transformer allows the system to work on two bands, say
160 and 80 meters. See the Receiving Antennas chapter in
ON4UN’s Low-Band DXing book for transformer details.

22.1.2 K6STI LOOP

The K6STI Loop (see Bibliography and this book’s CD-
ROM) in Figure 22.12 is a horizontal loop that combines
rejection of vertically polarized ground wave signals with a
null in the vertical radiation pattern to reject high-angle local
and regional noise. The sky wave response to lower-angle
signals is approximately omnidirectional.
The 80 meter version of the antenna measures 25 feet
on a side, is mounted horizontally 10 feet above ground, and
made of #14 AWG wire. It’s fed at opposite corners with
phasing lines made of #14 AWG wire spaced 1.5 inches
apart. A small ferrite transformer at the junction of the phas-
ing lines matches the antenna to 50-W coax feed line and also
functions as a balun. The trimmer capacitor (about 40 pF is
Figure 22.10 — Azimuth pattern at 10° takeoff angle for sin- required) in series with the antenna-side winding resonates
gle Beverage (dashed line) and two Beverages in an ech-
elon end-fire array. The rearward pattern is considerably
the loop at 3.5 MHz.
cleaner on the echelon. Thus, two closely spaced, short The loop can be constructed as small as 10 feet on a
Beverages can give considerable improvement over a sin- side and still provide noise-rejecting benefits. The loop
gle short Beverage. must be resonated with a variable capacitor and requires a
22-8   Chapter 22
 a null in the direction of the terminated “rear” element. The
horizontal gain of the antenna is about 20 dB lower than the
vertical gain and is directed at a high angle off the side.
The version in Figure 22.13 is designed to operate from
1.8 to 4.0 MHz with a front-to-back ratio of greater than
25 dB without adjustment. The EWE can be bottom fed as
shown in the figure or at the top of the front vertical element.
If separate feed lines and transformers are used for each of
the vertical elements, the termination can be switched be-
tween elements, creating a reversible pattern. Arrays can also
be created as described in the referenced articles, creating a
steerable pattern.

22.1.4 K9AY LOOP

Described here by its inventor, Gary Breed, K9AY, the
loop achieves modest, but useful directivity in a small area,
making it a popular choice for hams wanting to improve their
receiving ability. (See the Bibliography.) The loop is a hybrid
that combines two antenna types. Referring to Figure 22.14,
if the termination resistor is zero — a short circuit — the an-
tenna becomes a classic “small loop” (usually defined as less
than 0.1 l diameter). The near-field response of small loops is
predominantly to the magnetic field (H-field) component of
an electromagnetic wave. Next, with an infinite resistor — an
open circuit — the antenna becomes a short, bent monopole.
Short monopole antennas respond most strongly to the elec-
Figure 22.12 — Basic diagram of the 80 meter low-noise tric field (E-field) component of an electromagnetic wave.
loop antenna showing detail of the feed point arrangement.
In the K9AY Loop, the terminating resistor serves to
balance the ratio of the small loop and monopole responses,
preamplifier in most cases. (See the section on ferrite-loop with energy from the two modes summed at the feed point.
antennas later in this chapter for a suitable design.) The de- When the value of the resistor is adjusted to the optimum
sign can be scaled to higher and lower bands by multiplying
lengths, transformer turns, and capacitance values by 3.5 /
fMHz.

22.1.3 EWE ANTENNA

The EWE antenna invented by Floyd Koontz, WA2WVL,
combines two short vertical wires and one horizontal wire as
shown in Figure 22.13. (See the Bibliography.) Although the
EWE looks similar to a Beverage antenna as described previ-
ously, the EWE is essentially a two-element driven array. The
antenna receives best in the plane of the array in the direction
opposite the termination. The pattern is a broad cardioid with

Figure 22.13 —
The EWE
­antenna
­designed for
use on 160 and
80 meters.

Figure 22.14 — Configuration of the K9AY Loop at the maxi-

mum size that allows coverage of both 160 and 80 meter
ham bands with a resistive termination.

Receiving and Direction-Finding Antennas   22-9

value (typically near 400 W), there is cancellation of arriv-
ing signals in one of the directions in line with the plane of
the loop. This cancellation occurs because of the rotational
“sense” of the H-field. While the E-field is one-dimensional
(amplitude only), the H-field obeys the “right hand rule” that
can be visualized as spiral rotation as a wave travels through
space. Waves arriving from opposite directions will thus have
opposite rotation. From one direction, the E- and H-field con-
tributions are summed at the feed point. But for signals from
the opposite direction, the antenna output is the difference of
these contributions.
This same type of behavior is present in two other devic-
es familiar to hams; a directional coupler such as those used
in the familiar Bird wattmeter, and the direction-finding (DF)
loop with sense antenna described in many (mostly older)
antenna reference books.
The tradeoff for obtaining a directional pattern with small
size is low efficiency. With the dimensions given above, the
K9AY Loop has a gain of approximately –26 dBi. For com-
parison, a 1⁄4-wave vertical has a gain near 0 dBi, and a typical
one-wavelength Beverage antenna has a gain about –11 dBi. Figure 22.15 — Diagram of the K9AY Loop with dimensions
The loop should be used with a good high dynamic range and parameters for computer modeling.
preamplifier for best results. It is not suitable for transmitting,
since most of the RF energy will be absorbed by the resistor.

Computer Modeling
One of the challenges of designing the K9AY Loop was
developing an accurate computer model, since NEC-based
modeling programs will give inconsistent results for an an-
tenna connected directly to lossy ground. K9AY’s approach
was to first create a free-space model of the loop, doubled in
size with its mirror-image — just like making a 1⁄4-wave verti-
cal into a 1⁄2-wave dipole. This model is repeatable and shows
the actual gain and pattern shape, including the location of
the rearward null.
K9AY then returned to the as-built dimensions, installed
over ground. The final model uses the MININEC ground op-
tion, which assumes perfect ground when calculating imped-
ance. Ground losses are simulated by placing a resistor in the
ground connection. A little trial-and-error determined that
a resistor of approximately 150 W results in a pattern that
matched the free-space model (and on-air behavior, as best as
it can be determined). Figure 22.15 is a diagram showing the
modeling dimensions and parameters. This model has proven
accurate for modeling loops of different sizes and shapes, and
for arrays of loops.
For the chosen shape of the loop, and with the influence
of lossy ground, the resulting null appears at an angle about
45° above horizontal, in line with the plane of the loop and
toward the side with the resistor. This is shown in the pattern
plots of Figure 22.16.

Figure 22.16 — Vertical (A) and

­ orizontal (B) radiation patterns
h
for the K9AY Loop at 1.825 MHz.

22-10   Chapter 22
Construction line when transmitting. It’s best to open both the center con-
Construction of the K9AY Loop is shown in Figure 22.14. ductor and shield connections.
Approximately 85 feet of wire is arranged into a four-sided Ground Connection — Experience has shown that loca-
shape that is almost triangular. This shape was chosen pri- tions with almost any type of “real dirt” soil only require a
marily for its mechanical arrangement — it has a single single ground rod for proper operation. However, some in-
center support approximately 25 feet high, and it can share stallations may experience seasonal changes in soil moisture.
that support with a second loop installed at right angles (see Desert and salt water installations will change the behavior,
Figure 22.17). too. It sometimes helps to install additional ground radials to
Connections are made at the bottom. One end of the loop maintain consistent performance. Four or eight short radials
wire goes to the high impedance side of a 9:1 matching trans- are sufficient. Make them the same length, and place the first
former; the other end to a resistor with an optimum value that four directly under the loop wires. Note that the optimum
is typically about 400 W. Because the connections to each end
are at a central point, it is a simple matter to include a relay
at this point to reverse the connections, which reverses the
directional pattern of the loop. As noted above, a second loop
can be installed. Since its connections are also located in the
same place, a switching system with four directions is eas-
ily implemented. The ability to switch the pattern to several
directions is the primary advantage of the K9AY Loop over
other small receiving antenna designs. A schematic diagram
of four-direction relay switching is shown in Figure 22.18.

Installation and Operating Notes

Location — Because the K9AY Loop will often be in-
stalled where there is limited space, there may be interaction
with nearby objects. Other antennas, house wiring, metal
siding and gutters, overhead utilities, metal fences and other
conductors can distort the pattern and reduce the depth of the
null. The key test for proper operation is good front-to-back
ratio. If F/B is poor, you will need to identify the problem.
It is usually easiest to change the loop location compared to
changing the surroundings!
Transmitting Antennas — Proximity to transmitting an-
tennas may result in high RF levels on the loop, sent into the
shack on the feed line. Your receiver should be protected!
Protective devices are available from ham radio dealers, or
you can make a simple relay box that disconnects the feed

Figure 22.17 — Two loops can be installed with the same

central support, creating a two-loop system that can be
switched to cover four different directions. In a typical in-
stallation for 160 and 80 meter operation, the loops are Figure 22.18 — Outdoor antenna switching (top) and indoor
25 feet high and ±15 feet from the center (30 feet across). control (bottom) circuits for a four-direction, two-loop system.

Receiving and Direction-Finding Antennas   22-11

 Figure 22.20 — Horizontal pattern for two K9AY Loops,
spaced 1⁄2 l, fed as a broadside array with 0° phasing.
Frequency is 1.825 MHz.

pattern is modest compared to a one-wavelength or longer

Beverage. One way to improve performance, while keeping
most of the antenna’s limited-space appeal, is to combine two
or more of them in an array. One of the simplest arrays is to
install two crossed-loop sets with a spacing of 1⁄2-wavelength
(140 feet on 80 meters, 270 feet on 160 meters). For simplic-
ity, a phase shift of 0° for broadside operation and 180° for
Figure 22.19 — Vertical (A) and horizontal (B) radiation
end-fire operation can be used to avoid the need for additional
­patterns for two K9AY Loops, spaced 1⁄2 l, fed in end-fire phase shift circuitry — phasing can be accomplished by sim-
mode with 180° phasing. Frequency is 1.825 MHz ply reversing the windings of one matching transformer when
the array is in the end-fire mode.
Figure 22.19 compares the radiation patterns of a single
loop and the two-elements in line with the loops (end-fire
value of the resistor will likely be different when using radials. mode, phasing = 180°). The array adds two very deep side
Common Mode Isolation — While many installations nulls to the horizontal pattern, and increases the gain by 3 dB.
will work just fine with feed line and antenna both connected Also, the vertical directivity is enhanced with a deep over-
to the ground rod, some will require better isolation to avoid head null. The main forward lobe is narrower than a single
having the feed line shield become part of the antenna. The loop, but remains quite wide.
9:1 matching transformer should have separate primary and Figure 22.20 shows the horizontal pattern for the broad-
secondary windings, with the antenna side connected to the side mode (phase shift = 0°). The main forward lobe is much
ground rod. The feed line side may work well “floating,” narrower than a single loop, and good side nulls are present.
although another ground rod for the feed line may be wise, The vertical pattern is not shown because it is the same shape
especially with long feed lines. Feed lines that are buried, as a single loop, plus the 3 dB array gain.
or placed directly on the ground will be the least susceptible Of course, other arrays with different spacings and phase
to common mode problems. If at all possible, avoid elevat- shifts can be designed. The K9AY Loop is a good candidate
ing feed lines above ground (along fences or on posts, for for an array element. Its inherent directivity results in per-
example). formance that is better than the same array using omnidi-
rectional elements such as verticals. The loops also have a
Arrays of K9AY Loops low VSWR on the feed line, which simplifies the design of a
Although the K9AY Loop has useful directivity, its phasing network.
22-12   Chapter 22
 22.1.5 FLAG AND PENNANT ANTENNAS in the chapter Loop Antennas.) This is particularly true
Jose Mata, EA3VY, and Earl Cunningham, K6SE when high levels of man-made noise are prevalent, when
(SK), developed the pennant and flag receiving antennas in­ the second-harmonic energy from a nearby broadcast station
Figure 22.21 which have become popular for the low band falls in the 160 meter band, or when interference exists from
DXer. The antennas were developed to eliminate the need for some other amateur station in the immediate area. A properly
a good ground for predictable low noise directional reception. constructed and tuned small loop will exhibit approximately
Their small size makes them practical for those DXers without 30 dB of front-to-side response, the minimum response be-
the room to construct a Beverage or Four Square. Configured ing at right angles to the plane of the loop. Therefore, noise
as either a rectangle, triangle or diamond in the vertical plane, and interference can be reduced significantly or completely
the 160 and 80 meter version is about 29 feet long and 14 feet nulled out, by rotating the loop so that it is sideways to the
high and mounted about 6 feet above the ground. The reader is interference-causing source.
referred to the Bibliography for more information along with Generally speaking, small balanced loops are far less
the original article on this book’s CD-ROM.
Pennant and flag antennas have a feed point impedance
in the range of 945 W (the termination opposite the feed point
is also 945 W). The flag version shows about 5.5 dB higher
“gain” than the pennant version. Their directivity is toward
the feed point direction and appears cardioidal. The front-to-
back ratio is in excess of 35 dB. A simple 16 to 1 toroidal or
balun transformer can be used to couple to low impedance
coax lines.
Mark Connelly, WA1ION, (www.qsl.net/wa1ion) has
come up with a modification to allow a flag antenna to be elec-
trically reversed in direction and also to allow remote opti-
mization of the termination. In his version 16:1 transformers
are put at both the termination and feed point locations and a
coax cable is brought from the low impedance winding of both
of these into the shack. The user can then attach one of these
to the receiver and the other to a noninductive potentiometer
and adjust the potentiometer so that it is in the range of 55 to
70 W to see an impedance at the antenna in the 880 to 1120 W
range (when the transformer ratio is taken into effect). This
allows an in-shack switching box to be constructed to allow
these receiver and termination connections to be reversed to
allow the null to be moved in the opposite direction.

22.1.6 A RECEIVING LOOP FOR 1.8 MHz

You can use a small balanced loop antenna to improve
reception under certain conditions, especially at the lower Figure 22.22 — The 160 meter shielded loop uses bamboo
amateur frequencies. (The theory of this antenna is presented cross arms to support the antenna.

Figure 22.21 — Configurations

of the flag and pennant anten-
nas. The dimensions of the Flag,
both Pennants, and the
Diamond (a modification of the
Flag) are 29 feet by 14 feet. The
Delta (a type of half-Diamond) is
17 feet high and 28 feet long.
The ground-independent anten-
nas are 6 feet above ground.

Receiving and Direction-Finding Antennas   22-13

 are used. The line impedance is not significant with respect
to the loop element. Various types of coaxial line exhibit
different amounts of capacitance per foot, however, thereby
requiring more or less capacitance across the feed point to
establish resonance.
Balanced loops are not affected noticeably by nearby
objects, and therefore they can be installed indoors or out
after being tuned to resonance. Moving them from one place
to another does not significantly affect the tuning.
In the version shown in Figure 22.22, a supporting struc-
ture was fashioned from bamboo poles. The X frame is held
together at the center with two U bolts. The loop element is
taped to the cross-arms to form a square. You could likely
use metal cross arms without seriously degrading the antenna
performance. Alternatively, wood can be used for the sup-
porting frame.
A Minibox was used at the feed point of the loop to hold
the resonating variable capacitor. In this model a 50 to 400-pF
Figure 22.23 — Schematic diagram of the loop antenna. The compression trimmer was used to establish resonance. You
dimensions are not critical provided overall length of the must weatherproof the box for outdoor installations.
loop element does not exceed approximately 0.1 l. Small
loops which are one half or less the size of this one will
Remove the shield braid of the loop coax for one inch
prove useful where limited space is a consideration. directly opposite the feed point. You should treat the exposed
areas with a sealing compound once this is done.
In operation this receiving loop has proven very effective
for nulling out second-harmonic energy from local broadcast
responsive to man-made noise than are the larger antennas stations. During DX and contest operations on 160 meters it
used for transmitting and receiving. But a trade-off in perfor- helped prevent receiver overloading from strong nearby sta-
mance must be accepted when using the loop, for the strength tions. The marked reduction in response to noise has made
of received signals will be 10 or 15 dB less than when using the loop a valuable station accessory when receiving weak
a full-size resonant antenna. This condition is not a handicap signals. It is not used all of the time, but is available when
on 1.8 or 3.5 MHz, provided the station receiver has normal needed by connecting it to the receiver through an antenna
sensitivity and overall gain. Because a front-to-side ratio of selector switch. Reception of European stations with the loop
30 dB may be expected, a small loop can be used to eliminate has been possible from New England at times when other
a variety of receiving problems if made rotatable, as shown antennas were totally ineffective because of noise.
in Figure 22.22. It was also discovered that the effects of approaching
To obtain the sharp bidirectional pattern of a small storms (with attendant atmospheric noise) could be nullified
loop, the overall length of the conductor must not exceed considerably by rotating the loop away from the storm front.
0.1 l. The loop of Figure 22.23 has a conductor length of It should be said that the loop does not exhibit meaningful
20 feet. At 1.81 MHz, 20 feet is 0.037 l. With this style of directivity when receiving sky-wave signals. The directivity
loop, 0.037 l is about the maximum practical dimension if you characteristics relate primarily to ground-wave signals. This
want to tune the element to resonance. This limitation ­results is a bonus feature in disguise, for when nulling out local noise
from the distributed capacitance between the shield and inner or interference, one is still able to copy sky-wave signals from
conductor of the loop. RG-59 was used for the loop element all compass points!
in this example. The capacitance per foot for this cable is For receiving applications it is not necessary to match
21 pF, resulting in a total distributed capacitance of 420 pF. the feed line to the loop, though doing so may enhance the
An additional 100 pF was needed to resonate the loop at performance somewhat. If no attempt is made to obtain an
1.810 MHz. SWR of 1, the builder can use 50- or 75-W coax for a feeder,
Therefore, the approximate inductance of the loop is and no difference in performance will be observed. The Q of
15 µH. The effect of the capacitance becomes less pro- this loop is sufficiently low to allow the operator to peak it for
nounced at the higher end of the HF spectrum, provided resonance at 1.9 MHz and use it across the entire 160 meter
the same ­percentage of a wavelength is used in computing band. The degradation in performance at 1.8 and 2 MHz will
the conductor length. The ratio between the distributed ca- be so slight that it will be difficult to discern.
pacitance and the lumped capacitance used at the feed point
becomes greater at resonance. These facts should be contem- Propagation Effects on Null Depth
plated when scaling the loop to those bands above 1.8 MHz. After building a balanced loop you may find it does not
There will not be a major difference in the construction approach the theoretical performance in the null depth. This
requirements of the loop if coaxial cables other than RG-59 problem may result from propagation effects. Tilting the

22-14   Chapter 22
loop away from a vertical plane may improve performance Gentges, KØBRA. (This article is also included on this book’s
under some propagation conditions, to account for the verti- CD-ROM.) An active antenna is an electrically and physical-
cal angle of arrival. Basically, the loop performs as described ly small antenna combined with an active electronic circuit,
above only when the signal is arriving perpendicular to the such as an amplifier. An active antenna uses a small whip
axis of rotation of the loop. At incidence angles other than — one that is a fraction of a wavelength long at the desired
perpendicular, the position and depth of the nulls deteriorate. frequency — connected to an active impedance-conversion
Bond explained this issue in his book on direction finding in circuit. Active antennas are used at HF and lower frequen-
1944 along with the math to calculate the performance. cies through VLF. A commercially available model, the DX
The problem can be even further influenced by the fact Engineering DXE-ARAV3-1P (www.dxengineering.com),
that if the loop is situated over less than perfectly conduc- can be used from 100 kHz through 30 MHz and can be com-
tive ground, the wave front will appear to tilt or bend. (This bined with other units into highly directional arrays.
bending is not always detrimental; in the case of Beverage An electrically short whip has a high output impedance.
antennas, sites are chosen to take advantage of this effect.) For example, a 1 meter whip at 100 kHz has an input im-
Another cause of apparent poor performance in the null pedance higher than 100 kW, mostly capacitive reactance. If
depth can be from polarization error. If the polarization of the such a whip were connected directly to a 50-W load, signals
signal is not completely linear, the nulls will not be sharp. In would be attenuated more than 80 dB than those from a 50-W
fact, for circularly polarized signals, the loop might appear antenna! Thus, some kind of active impedance-conversion is
to have almost no nulls. Propagation effects are discussed required, usually a high-input-impedance FET-based ampli-
further in the sections on direction finding. fier. The major challenges to the circuit are non-linearity and
the resulting intermodulation distortion products (IMD). This
Siting Effects on the Loop is a particularly difficult issue close to transmitting antennas.
The location of the loop has an influence on its perfor- A detailed treatment of the active circuit’s performance was
mance that at times may become quite noticeable. For ideal presented by Dr Ulrich Rhode, N1UL, in RF Design. (See
performance the loop should be located outdoors and clear of the Bibliography.)
any large conductors, such as metallic downspouts and tow-
ers. A VLF loop, when mounted this way, will show good 22.1.8 RECEIVING ANTENNAS
sharp nulls spaced 180° apart if the loop is well balanced. BIBLIOGRAPHY
This is because the major propagation mode at VLF is by Source material and more extended discussion of topics
ground wave. At frequencies in the HF region, a significant covered in this chapter can be found in the references given
portion of the signal is propagated by sky wave, and nulls are below and in the textbooks listed at the end of the Antenna
often only partial. Fundamentals chapter.
Most hams locate their loop antennas near their operat-
ing position. If you choose to locate a small loop indoors,
its performance may show nulls of less than the expected Beverage Antennas
depth, and some skewing of the pattern. For precision direc- A. Bailey, S. W. Dean and W. T. Wintringham, “The
tion finding there may be some errors associated with wiring, Receiving System for Long-Wave Transatlantic Radio
plumbing, and other metallic construction members in the Telephony,” The Bell System Technical Journal,
building. Also, a strong local signal may be reradiated from Apr 1929.
the surrounding conductors so that it cannot be nulled with J. S. Belrose, “Beverage Antennas for Amateur
any positioning of the loop. There appears to be no known Communications,” Technical Correspondence, QST,
method of curing this type of problem. All this should not Sep 1981, p 51.
discourage you from locating a loop indoors; this informa- H. H. Beverage, “Antennas,” RCA Review, Jul 1939.
tion is presented here only to give you an idea of some pit- H. H. Beverage and D. DeMaw, “The Classic Beverage
falls. Many hams have reported excellent results with indoor Antenna Revisited,” QST, Jan 1982, pp 11-17.
mounted loops, in spite of some of the problems. B. Boothe, “Weak-Signal Reception on 160 — Some
Locating a receiving loop in the field of a transmitting Antenna Notes,” QST, Jun 1977, pp 35-39.
antenna may cause a large voltage to appear at the receiver M. F. DeMaw, Ferromagnetic-Core Design and Application
antenna terminals. This may be sufficient to destroy sensi- Handbook (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall Inc,
tive RF amplifier transistors or front-end protection diodes. 1981).
This can be solved by disconnecting your loop from the re- J. Devoldere, ON4UN’s Low-Band DXing, Fifth Edition
ceiver during transmit periods. This can obviously be done (Newington: ARRL, 2010). See in particular the chapter
automatically with a relay that opens when the transmitter “Receiving Antennas,” for many practical details on
is activated. Beverage antennas.
V. A. Misek, The Beverage Antenna Handbook (Wason Rd.,
22.1.7 ACTIVE ANTENNAS Hudson, NH: W1WCR, 1977).
The following material is based on the Sep 2001 QST W. Silver, “A Cool Beverage Four Pack,” QST, Apr 2006,
­article, “The AMRAD Active LF Antenna,” by Frank pp 33-36.

Receiving and Direction-Finding Antennas   22-15

Active Antennas R. J. Edmunds, Ed. “An FET Loop Amplifier with Coaxial
F. Gentges, “The AMRAD Active LF Antenna,” QST, Output,” N.R.C. Antenna Reference Manual, Vol 2,
Sep 2001, pp 31-37. 1st ed. (Cambridge, WI: National Radio Club, Oct
P. Bertini, “Active Antenna Covers 0.5-30 MHz,” Ham 1982), pp 17-20.
Radio, May 1985, pp 37-43. S. Goldman, “A Shielded Loop for Low Noise Broadcast
R. Burhans, “Active Antenna Preamplifiers,” Ham Radio, Reception,” Electronics, Oct 1938, pp 20-22.
May 1986, pp 47-54. J. V. Hagan, “A Large Aperture Ferrite Core Loop Antenna
R. Fisk, “Voltage-Probe Receiving Antenna,” Ham Radio, for Long and Medium Wave Reception,” Loop Antennas
Oct 1970, pp 20-21. Design and Theory, M.G. Knitter, Ed. (Cambridge, WI:
U. Rohde, “Active Antennas,” RF Design, May/Jun 1981, National Radio Club, 1983), pp 37-49.
pp 38-42. F. M. Howes and F. M. Wood, “Note on the Bearing Error
and Sensitivity of a Loop Antenna in an Abnormally
Loops, Flags, and Pennants Polarized Field,” Proc IRE, Apr 1944, pp 231-233.
B. Beezley, “A Receiving Antenna that Rejects Local F. Koontz, “Is this EWE for You?,” QST, Feb 1995,
Noise,” QST, Sep 1995, pp 33-36. pp 31-33. See also Feedback, Apr 1995 QST, p 75.
D. Bond, Radio Direction Finders, 1st ed. (New York: F. Koontz, “More EWEs for You,” QST, Jan 1996, pp 32-34.
McGraw-Hill Book Co, 1944). F. Koontz, “The Horizontal EWE Antenna,” QST, Dec
G. Bramslev, “Loop Aerial Reception,” Wireless World, 2006, pp 37-38.
Nov 1952, pp 469-472. G. Levy, “Loop Antennas for Aircraft,” Proc IRE, Feb 1943,
G. Breed, “The K9AY Terminated Loop — A Compact, pp 56-66. Also see correction, Proc IRE, Jul 1943,
Directional Receiving Antenna,” QST, Sep 1997, p 384.
pp 43-46. R. C. Pettengill, H. T. Garland and J. D. Meindl, “Receiving
G. Breed, K9AY, “Hum Problems When Switching the Antenna Design for Miniature Receivers,” IEEE Trans
K9AY Loops,” Technical Correspondence, QST, on Ant and Prop, Jul 1977, pp 528-530.
May 1998, p 73. W. J. Polydoroff, High Frequency Magnetic Materials —
G. Breed, Various notes on the K9AY Loop are available at Their Characteristics and Principal Applications (New
www.aytechnologies.com under the “Tech Notes” tab. York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc, 1960).
R. Burhans, “Experimental Loop Antennas for 60 kHz to E. Robberson, “QRM? Get Looped,” Radio and Television
200 kHz,” Technical Memorandum (NASA) 71, (Athens, News, Aug 1955, pp 52-54, 126.
OH: Ohio Univ, Dept of Electrical Engr), Dec 1979. D. Sinclair, “Flag and Pennant Antenna Compendium,”
R. Burhans, “Loop Antennas for VLF-LF,” Radio- www.angelfire.com/md/k3ky.
Electronics, Jun 1983, pp 83-87. G. S. Smith, “Radiation Efficiency of Electrically Small
M. Connelly, “New Termination Control Method for Flag, Multiturn Loop Antennas,” IEEE Trans on Ant and
Pennant and Similar Antennas,” International Radio Prop, Sep 1972, pp 656-657.
Club of America reprint A162, Nov 2002. E. C. Snelling, Soft Ferrites — Properties and Applications
M. Connelly, “Pennant Antenna with Remote Termination (Cleveland, OH: CRC Press, 1969).
Control,” home.comcast.net/~markwa1ion/exaol2/ C. R. Sullivan, “Optimal Choice for the Number of Strands
pennant.htm. in a Litz-Wire Transformer Winding,” IEEE Trans on
E. Cunningham, “Flag, Pennants and Other Ground- Power Electronics, Vol. 14 No. 2, Mar 1999, pp 283-291
Independent Low-Band Receiving Antennas,” QST, (also available on line at www.thayer.dartmouth.edu/
Jul 2000, pp 34-37. inductor/papers/litzj.pdf).
R. Devore and P. Bohley, “The Electrically Small G. Thomas, “The Hot Rod — An Inexpensive Ferrite
Magnetically Loaded Multiturn Loop Antenna,” IEEE Booster Antenna,” Loop Antennas Theory and Design,
Trans on Ant and Prop, Jul 1977, pp 496-505. M. G. Knitter, Ed. (Cambridge, WI: National Radio
Club, 1983), pp 57-62.

22-16   Chapter 22
 22.2 Direction-Finding Antennas
The use of radio for direction finding purposes (RDF) is the transmitter is reduced and more bearings are taken for tri-
almost as old as its application for communications. Radio angulation, the amount of error also shrinks. If the antenna is
amateurs have learned RDF techniques and found much sat- fixed, such as for taking sky-wave bearings, precision is more
isfaction by participating in hidden-transmitter hunts. Other important since distance to the transmitter does not change.
hams have discovered RDF through an interest in boating or In competitive events where the most common technique is
aviation, where radio direction finding is used for naviga- to move toward peak signal on a relatively continuous basis,
tion and emergency location systems. (Amateur RDF which it is more important to be able to take a reading quickly and
finds a transmitter from its transmitted signal, should be consistently.
distinguished from aviation’s radio direction-finding, which
finds a direction based on a signal transmitted from a known 22.2.1 RDF BY TRIANGULATION
location.) It is impossible, using amateur techniques, to pinpoint
In many countries of the world, the hunting of hidden the whereabouts of a transmitter from a single receiving
amateur transmitters takes on the atmosphere of a sport, as location. With a directional antenna you can determine the
participants wearing jogging togs or track suits dash toward direction of a signal source, but not how far away it is. To
the area where they believe the transmitter is located. The find the distance, you can then travel in the determined direc-
sport is variously known as fox hunting, bunny hunting, tion until you discover the transmitter location. However, that
ARDF (Amateur Radio direction finding) or simply trans- technique can be time consuming and often does not work
mitter hunting. In North America, most hunting of hidden very well.
transmitters is conducted from automobiles, although hunts A preferred technique is to take at least one additional
on foot are gaining popularity. Most ARDF activity uses direction measurement from a second receiving location.
80 meter or 2 meter transmitters. Then use a map of the area and plot the bearing or direc-
There are less pleasant RDF applications as well, such as tion measurements as straight lines from points on the map
tracking down noise sources or illegal operators from uniden- representing the two locations. The approximate location of
tified stations. Jammers of repeaters, traffic nets and other the transmitter will be indicated by the point where the two
amateur operations can be located with RDF equipment. Or bearing lines cross. Even better results can be obtained by
sometimes a stolen amateur rig will be operated by a person taking direction measurements from three locations and us-
who is not familiar with Amateur Radio and by being lured ing the mapping technique just described. Because absolutely
into making repeated transmissions, the operator unsuspect- precise bearing measurements are difficult to obtain in prac-
ingly permits their location to be determined with RDF tice, the three lines will almost always cross to form a triangle
equipment. The ability of certain RDF antennas to reject sig- on the map, rather than at a single point. The transmitter will
nals from selected directions has also been used to advantage usually be located inside the area represented by the triangle.
in reducing noise and interference. Through APRS (Amateur Additional information on the technique of triangulation and
Packet Reporting System), radio navigation is becoming a much more on RDF techniques may be found at the Homing
popular application of RDF. The locating of downed aircraft In website mentioned above.
is another, and one in which amateurs often lend their skills. It is important to note that the directions determined by
Indeed, there are many useful applications for RDF. a DF receiver can be affected by skew paths (HF) and reflec-
Although sophisticated and complex equipment pushing tions (VHF). In addition, signals arriving by sky wave can
the state of the art has been developed for use by governments appear to be coming from different azimuths than by ground
and commercial enterprises, relatively simple equipment can wave. Knowing about and avoiding these errors are part of
be built at home to offer the radio amateur an opportunity successful RDF.
to RDF. This section deals with antennas suitable for that
purpose. 22.2.2 DIRECTION-FINDING ANTENNAS
The major types of RDF antennas used by amateurs are Required for any RDF system are a directive antenna
covered here, with a project or referenced article included for and a device for detecting the radio signal. In amateur ap-
each. In ARDF events, it’s very common to use integrated plications the signal detector is usually a transceiver and for
receiver/antenna combinations to reduce the amount of gear convenience it will usually have a meter to indicate signal
the competitor has to carry. Examples of this type of gear can strength. Unmodified, commercially available portable or
be found through the Homing In website maintained by Joe mobile receivers are generally quite satisfactory for signal
Moell, KØOV (www.homingin.com). In ARDF, both mag- detectors. At very close ranges a simple diode detector and
netic loop and ferrite rod antennas are popular with magnetic dc microammeter may suffice for the detector.
loops being the more popular. On VHF, three-element Yagis On the other hand, antennas used for RDF techniques
are by far the most popular are not generally the types used for normal two-way com-
How accurate should an RDF antenna be? In mobile and munications. Directivity is a prime requirement, and here the
portable use, accuracy to a few degrees is fine. While the word directivity takes on a somewhat different meaning than
uncertainty of a few degrees sounds large, as the distance to is commonly applied to other amateur antennas. Normally

Receiving and Direction-Finding Antennas   22-17

we associate directivity with gain, and we think of the ideal small loop antenna will not indicate the exact direction toward
antenna pattern as one having a long, thin main lobe. Such the transmitter — only the line along which the transmitter
a pattern may be of value for coarse measurements in RDF lies. Ways to overcome this ambiguity are discussed later.
work, but precise bearing measurements are not possible. When the antenna effect is appreciable and the loop is
There is always a spread of a few (or perhaps many) degrees tuned to resonance, the loop may exhibit little directivity, as
on the nose of the lobe, where a shift of antenna bearing shown in Figure 22.24B. However, by detuning the loop to
produces no detectable change in signal strength. In RDF shift the phasing, a pattern similar to Figure 22.24C may be
measurements, it is desirable to correlate an exact bearing or obtained. Although this pattern is not symmetrical, it does
compass direction with the position of the antenna. In order exhibit a null. Even so, the null may not be as sharp as that
to do this as accurately as possible, an antenna exhibiting a obtained with a loop that is well balanced, and it may not be
null in its pattern is used. A null can be very sharp in directiv- at exact right angles to the plane of the loop, making deter-
ity, to within a half degree or less. mining a bearing more difficult.
By suitable detuning, the unidirectional cardioid pat-
Loop Antennas tern of Figure 22.24D may be approached. This adjustment
A simple antenna for HF RDF work is a small loop tuned is sometimes used in RDF work to obtain a unidirectional
to resonance with a capacitor. (Resonant loops are too small bearing, although there is no complete null in the pattern.
for VHF DFing and other antennas must be used.) Several A cardioid pattern can also be obtained with a small loop
factors must be considered in the design of an RDF loop. antenna by adding a sensing element. Sensing elements are
The loop must be small in circumference compared with the discussed in a later section of this chapter.
wavelength. In a single-turn loop, the conductor should be An electrostatic balance can be obtained by shielding the
less than 0.08 l long. For 28 MHz, this represents a length of loop, as Figure 22.25 shows. The shield is represented by
less than 34 inches (a diameter of approximately 10 inches). the broken lines in the drawing, and eliminates the antenna
Maximum response from the loop antenna is in the plane of effect. The response of a well-constructed shielded loop is
the loop, with nulls exhibited at right angles to that plane. (A quite close to the ideal pattern of Figure 22.24A.
more detailed treatment is presented in the Loop Antennas For the low-frequency amateur bands, single-turn loops
chapter.) of convenient physical size for portability are generally found
To obtain the most accurate bearings, the loop must be to be too large for RDF work. Therefore, multi-turn loops are
balanced electrostatically with respect to ground. Otherwise, generally used instead. Such a loop is shown in Figure 22.26.
the loop will exhibit two modes of operation. One is the mode This loop may also be shielded, and if the total conductor
of a true loop, while the other is that of an essentially non- length remains below 0.08 l, the directional pattern is that
directional vertical antenna of small dimensions. This second of Figure 22.24A. A sensing element may also be used with
mode is called the antenna effect. The voltages introduced by a multi-turn loop.
the two modes are seldom in phase and may add or subtract,
depending upon the direction from which the wave is coming. Loop Circuits and Criteria
The theoretical true loop pattern is illustrated in Fig- No single word describes a direction-finding loop of high
ure 22.24A. When properly balanced, the loop exhibits two
nulls that are 180° apart. Thus, a single null reading with a

Figure 22.24 — Small-loop field patterns with varying

amounts of antenna effect — the undesired response of the Figure 22.25 — Shielded loop for direction finding. The ends
loop acting merely as a mass of metal connected to the re- of the shielding turn are not connected, to prevent shielding
ceiver antenna terminals. The straight lines show the plane the loop from magnetic fields. The shield is effective in
of the loop. ­balancing the loop’s response to electric fields.

22-18   Chapter 22
Figure 22.26 — Small loop consisting of several turns of
wire. The total conductor length is very much less than a
wavelength. Maximum response is in the plane of the loop.

Figure 22.27 — Field pattern for a ferrite rod antenna. The

performance better than symmetry. To obtain an undistorted dark bar represents the rod on which the loop turns are
response pattern from this type of antenna, you must build it wound.
in the most symmetrical manner possible. The next key word
is balance. The better the electrical balance, the deeper the
loop null and the sharper the maxima.
The physical size of the loop for 7 MHz and below is not small number of coil turns. Because of their reduced-size
of major consequence. A 4-foot diameter loop will exhibit the advantage, ferrite-rod loopstick antennas are used almost ex-
same electrical characteristics as one which is only an inch clusively for portable work at frequencies below 150 MHz.
or two in diameter. The smaller the loop, however, the lower Design of ferrite-core loop antennas is described in the Loop
its efficiency. This is because its aperture samples a smaller Antennas chapter and loopstick antennas for construction
section of the wave front. Thus, if you use loops that are very are described later in this chapter.
small in terms of a wavelength, you will need preamplifiers Maximum response of the loopstick antenna is broad-
to compensate for the reduced efficiency. side to the axis of the rod as shown in Figure 22.27, whereas
An important point to keep in mind about a small loop maximum response of the ordinary loop is in a direction at
antenna oriented in a vertical plane is that it is vertically right angles to the plane of the loop. Otherwise, the perfor-
polarized. It should be fed at the bottom for the best null re- mances of the ferrite-rod antenna and of the ordinary loop are
sponse. Feeding it at one side, rather than at the bottom, will similar. The loopstick may also be shielded to eliminate the
not alter the polarization and will only degrade performance. antenna effect, such as with a U-shaped or C-shaped channel
To obtain horizontal polarization from a small loop, it must of aluminum or other type of metal. The length of the shield
be oriented in a horizontal plane, parallel to the earth. In this should equal or slightly exceed the length of the rod.
position the loop response is essentially omnidirectional.
The earliest loop antennas were of the frame antenna Sensing Antennas
variety. These were unshielded antennas built on a wooden Because there are two nulls that are 180° apart in the
frame in a rectangular format. The loop conductor could be directional pattern of a loop or a loopstick, an ambiguity
a single turn of wire (on the larger units) or several turns if exists as to which one indicates the true direction of the sta-
the frame was small. Later, shielded versions of the frame tion being tracked. For example, assume you take a bearing
antenna became popular, providing electrostatic shielding — measurement and the result indicates the transmitter is some-
an aid to noise reduction from such sources as precipitation where on a line running approximately east and west from
static. your position. With this single reading, you have no way of
knowing for sure if the transmitter is east of you or west of
Ferrite Rod Antennas you.
With advances in technology, magnetic-core loop anten- If more than one receiving station takes bearings on a
nas came into use. Their advantage was reduced size, and this single transmitter, or if a single receiving station takes bear-
appealed especially to the designers of aircraft and portable ings on the transmitter from more than one position, the
radios. Most of these antennas contain ferrite bars or cylin- ambiguity may be worked out by triangulation, as described
ders, which provide high inductance and Q with a relatively earlier. However, it is sometimes desirable to have a pattern
Receiving and Direction-Finding Antennas   22-19
 For the best null in the composite pattern, the signals from
the loop and the sensing antenna must be of equal amplitude,
so R1 is adjusted experimentally during setup. In practice,
the null of the cardioid is not as sharp as that of the loop,
so the usual measurement procedure is to first use the loop
alone to obtain a precise bearing reading, and then to add the
sensing antenna and take another reading to resolve the am-
biguity. (The null of the cardioid is 90° away from the nulls
of the loop.) For this reason, provisions are usually made for
switching the sensing element in an out of operation.

22.2.3 DIRECTION-FINDING ARRAYS

Phased arrays are also used in amateur RDF work. Two
general classifications of phased arrays are end-fire and
broadside configurations. Depending on the spacing and
phasing of the elements, end-fire patterns may exhibit a null
in one direction along the axis of the elements. At the same
time, the response is maximum off the other end of the axis,
in the opposite direction from the null. A familiar arrange-
ment is two elements spaced 1⁄4 l apart and fed 90° out of
phase. The resultant pattern is a cardioid, with the null in
the direction of the leading element. Other arrangements of
spacing and phasing for an end-fire array are also suitable
for RDF work. One of the best known is the Adcock array,
discussed in the next section.
Broadside arrays are inherently bidirectional, which
means there are always at least two nulls in the pattern.
Ambiguity therefore exists in the true direction of the trans-
mitter, but depending on the application, this may be no
handicap. Broadside arrays are seldom used for amateur RDF
applications however.

The Adcock Antenna

Loops are adequate in RDF applications where only the
ground wave is present. The performance of an RDF system
for sky-wave reception can be improved by the use of an
Adcock antenna, one of the most popular types of end-fire
phased arrays. A basic version is shown in Figure 22.29.
Figure 22.28 — At A, the directivity pattern of a loop anten-
na with sensing element. At B is a circuit for combining the
This system was invented by F. Adcock and patented in
signals from the two elements. C1 is adjusted for resonance
with T1 at the operating frequency.

with only one null, so there is no question about whether the

transmitter in the above example would be east or west from
your position.
A loop or loopstick antenna may be made to have a
single null if a second antenna element is added. The element
is called a sensing antenna, because it gives an added sense
of direction to the loop pattern. The second element must be
omnidirectional, such as a short vertical. When the signals
from the loop and the vertical element are combined with a
90° phase shift between the two, a cardioid pattern results.
The development of the pattern is shown in Figure 22.28A.
Figure 22.28B shows a circuit for adding a sensing an-
tenna to a loop or loopstick. R1 is an internal adjustment and
is used to set the level of the signal from the sensing antenna. Figure 22.29 — A simple Adcock antenna.

22-20   Chapter 22
 portability leaves something to be desired, making it more
suitable to fixed or semi-portable applications. While a metal
support for the mast and boom could be used, wood, PVC or
fiberglass are preferable because they are nonconductors and
would therefore cause less pattern distortion.
Since the array is balanced, an antenna tuner is required
to match the unbalanced input of a typical receiver. Fig-
ure 22.30 shows a suitable link-coupled network. C2 and C3
are null-balancing capacitors. A low-power signal source is
placed some distance from the Adcock antenna and broad-
side to it. C2 and C3 are then adjusted until the deepest null
is obtained. The tuner can be placed below the wiring-harness
junction on the boom. Connection can be made by means of
a short length of 300-W twinlead.
Figure 22.30 — A suitable coupler for use with the Adcock The radiation pattern of the Adcock is shown in Fig-
antenna.
ure 22.31A. The nulls are in directions broadside to the
array, and become sharper with greater element spacings.
However, with an element spacing greater than 0.75 l, the
1919. The array consists of two vertical elements fed 180° pattern begins to take on additional nulls in the directions off
apart, and mounted so the system may be rotated. Element the ends of the array axis. At a spacing of 1 l the pattern is
spacing is not critical, and may be in the range from 0.1 to that of Figure 22.31B, and the array is unsuitable for RDF
0.75 l. The two elements must be of identical lengths, but applications.
need not be self-resonant. Elements that are shorter than Short vertical monopoles over a ground plane are often
resonant are commonly used. Because neither the element used in what is sometimes called the U-Adcock, so named be-
spacing nor the length is critical in terms of wavelengths, an cause the elements with their feeders take on the shape of the
Adcock array may be operated over more than one amateur letter U. In this arrangement the elements are worked against
band. the earth as a ground or counterpoise. (Replace the bottom
The response of the Adcock array to vertically polarized half of the elements and feeders in Figure 22.29 with a ground
waves is similar to a conventional loop and the directive pat- plane.) If the array is used only for reception, earth losses are
tern is essentially the same. Response of the array to a hori- of no great consequence. Short, elevated vertical dipoles are
zontally polarized wave is considerably different from that also used in what is sometimes called the H-Adcock.
of a loop, however. The currents induced in the horizontal The Adcock array, with two nulls in its pattern, has the
members tend to balance out regardless of the orientation of same ambiguity as the loop and the loopstick. Adding a
the antenna, preserving the null. This effect has been verified sensing element to the Adcock array has not met with great
in practice, where good nulls were obtained with an experi- success. Difficulties arise from mutual coupling between the
mental Adcock under sky-wave conditions with rapidly vary- array elements and the sensing element, among other things.
ing polarization that produced poor nulls in small loops (both Because Adcock arrays are used primarily for fixed-station
conventional and ferrite-loop models). applications, the ambiguity presents no serious problem. The
Generally speaking, the Adcock antenna has attractive fixed station is usually one of a group of stations in an RDF
properties for amateur RDF applications. Unfortunately, its network.

Figure 22.31 — At A, the pat-

tern of the Adcock array
with an element spacing of
1
⁄2 wavelength. In these plots
the elements are aligned
with the horizontal axis. As
the element spacing is in-
creased beyond 3⁄4 wave-
length, additional nulls
­develop off the ends of the
array, and at a spacing of
1 wavelength the pattern at
B exists. This pattern is un-
suitable for RDF work.

Receiving and Direction-Finding Antennas   22-21

Loops Versus Phased Arrays to actually rotating the array itself. Therefore, the rotation of
Although loops can be made smaller than suitable phased the inner coil can be calibrated in degrees to correspond to
arrays for the same frequency of operation, the phased arrays bearing angles from the station location.
are preferred by some for a variety of reasons. In general,
sharper nulls can be obtained with phased arrays, but this is Electronic Antenna Rotation
also a function of the care used in constructing and feeding With an array of many fixed elements, beam formation
the individual antennas, as well as of the size of the phased and rotation can be performed electronically by sampling and
array in terms of wavelengths. The primary constructional combining signals from various individual elements in the
consideration is the shielding and balancing of the feed line array. Contingent upon the total number of elements in the
against unwanted signal pickup, and the balancing of the an- system and their physical arrangement, almost any desired
tenna for a symmetrical pattern. antenna pattern can be formed by summing the sampled sig-
Loops are not as useful for skywave RDF work because nals in appropriate amplitude and phase relationships. Delay
of random polarization of the received signal. Phased arrays networks are used for some of the elements before the sum-
are somewhat less sensitive to propagation effects, probably mation is performed. In addition, attenuators may be used for
because they are larger for the same frequency of operation some elements to develop patterns such as from an array with
and therefore offer some space diversity. In general, loops and binomial current distribution.
loopsticks are used for mobile and portable operation, while One system using these techniques is the Wullenweber
phased arrays are used for fixed-station operation. However, antenna, employed primarily in government and military in-
phased arrays are used successfully above 144 MHz for por- stallations. The Wullenweber consists of a very large number
table and mobile RDF work. Practical examples of both types of elements arranged in a circle, usually outside of (or in front
of antennas are presented later in this chapter. of) a circular reflecting screen. Delay lines and electronic
switches create a beam-forming network that can be steered
The Goniometer in any direction and with a wide variety of patterns.
An early-day device that permits finding directions For the moment, consider just two elements of a
without moving the elements is called a radiogoniometer, or Wullenweber antenna, shown as A and B in Figure 22.33.
simply a goniometer. Various types of goniometers are still Also shown is the wavefront of a radio signal arriving from a
used today in many installations, and offer the amateur some distant transmitter. As drawn, the wavefront strikes element
possibilities. A first, and must travel somewhat farther before it strikes
The early style of goniometer is a special form of RF element B. There is a finite time delay before the wavefront
transformer, as shown in Figure 22.32. It consists of two fixed reaches element B.
coils mounted at right angles to one another. Inside the fixed The propagation delay may be measured by delaying
coils is a movable coil, not shown in Figure 22.32 to avoid the signal received at element A before summing it with that
cluttering the diagram. The pairs of connections marked A from element B. If the two signals are combined directly, the
and B are connected respectively to two elements in an array, amplitude of the resultant signal will be maximum when the
and the output to the detector or receiver is taken from the delay for element A exactly equals the propagation delay.
movable coil. As the inner coil is rotated, the coupling to one This results in an in-phase condition at the summation point.
fixed coil increases while that to the other decreases. Both the Or if one of the signals is inverted and the two are summed, a
amplitude and the phase of the signal coupled into the pickup null will exist when the element-A delay equals the propaga-
winding are altered with rotation in a way that corresponds tion delay; the signals will combine in a 180° out-of-phase

Figure 22.33 — This diagram illustrates one technique used

in electronic beam forming. By delaying the signal from ele-
Figure 22.32 — An early type of goniometer that is still used ment A by an amount equal to the propagation delay, the
today in some RDF applications. This device is a special two signals may be summed precisely in phase, even
type of RF transformer that permits a movable coil in the though the signal is not in the broadside direction. Because
center (not shown here) to be rotated and determine direc- this time delay is identical for all frequencies, the system is
tions even though the elements are stationary. not frequency sensitive.

22-22   Chapter 22
relationship. Either way, once the time delay is known, it may this end, pay particular attention to the feed line. Using a
be converted to distance. Then the direction from which the coaxial feeder for a balanced antenna invites an asymmetri-
wave is arriving may be determined by trigonometry. cal pattern, unless an effective balun is used. A balun is not
By altering the delay in small increments, the peak of the necessary if the loop is shielded, but an asymmetrical pat-
antenna lobe (or the null) can be steered in azimuth. This is tern can result with misplacement of the break in the shield
true without regard to the frequency of the incoming wave. itself. The builder may also find that the presence of a sensing
Thus, as long as the delay is less than the period of one RF antenna upsets the balance slightly, due to mutual coupling.
cycle, the system is not frequency sensitive, other than for Experiment with its position with respect to the main antenna
the frequency range that may be covered satisfactorily by the to correct the error. You will also note that the position of
array elements themselves. Surface acoustic wave (SAW) de- the null shifts by 90° as the sensing element is switched in
vices or lumped-constant networks can be used for delay lines and out, and the null is not as deep. This is of little concern,
in such systems if the system is used only for receiving. Rolls however, as the intent of the sensing antenna is only to re-
of coaxial cable of various lengths are used in installations for solve ambiguities. The sensing element should be switched
transmitting. In this case, the lines are considered for the time out when accuracy is desired.
delay they provide, rather than as simple phasing lines. The The second option is to accept the imbalance of the an-
difference is that a phasing line is ordinarily designed for a tenna and use some kind of indicator to show the true direc-
single frequency (or for an amateur band), while a delay line tions of the nulls. Small pointers, painted marks on the mast,
offers essentially the same time delay at all frequencies. or an optical sighting system might be used. Sometimes the
A four-element, electronically-rotating RDF antenna end result of the calibration procedure will be a compromise
system for amateur RDF was described in an article by between these two options, as a perfect electrical balance
Malcolm C. Mallette, WA9BVS, in November 1995 QST and may be difficult or impossible to attain.
included on this book’s CD-ROM. The system is designed Because of nearby obstructions or reflecting objects, the
to be used while mobile and is based on time-difference-of- null in the pattern may not appear to indicate the precise di-
arrival techniques. rection of the transmitter. Do not confuse this with imbalance
in the RDF array. Check for imbalance by rotating the array
22.2.4 RDF SYSTEM 180° and comparing readings.
CALIBRATION AND USE The discussion above is oriented toward calibrating
Once an RDF system is initially assembled, it should portable RDF systems such as would be used for competi-
be calibrated or checked out before actually being put into tive ARDF events and general-purpose fox hunting. The
use. Of primary concern is the balance or symmetry of the same general suggestions apply if the RDF array is fixed,
antenna pattern. A lop-sided figure-8 pattern with a loop, for such as an Adcock. However, it won’t be possible to move it
example, is undesirable; the nulls are not 180° apart, nor are to an open field. Instead, the array must be calibrated in its
they at exact right angles to the plane of the loop. If you didn’t intended operating position through the use of a portable or
know this fact in actual RDF work, measurement accuracy mobile transmitter and a table of bearing errors compiled that
would suffer. can be used during actual operation. Fixed DF antennas are
It is also common to add a regular magnetic compass to rare in amateur service however.
an RDF antenna. This provides numeric bearings for events
that combine orienteering or if reporting numeric bearings is 22.2.5 A FRAME LOOP
important. It was mentioned earlier that the earliest style of receiv-
Initial checkout can be performed with a low-powered ing loops was the frame antenna. If carefully constructed,
transmitter at a distance of a few hundred feet. It should be such an antenna performs well and can be built at low cost.
within visual range and if transmitting on HF must be oper- Figure 22.34 illustrates the details of a practical frame type of
ating into a vertical antenna. (A quarter-wave vertical or a loop antenna. This antenna was designed by Doug DeMaw,
loaded whip is quite suitable. Omni-directional horizontally W1FB (SK), and described in QST for July 1977. (See the
polarized antennas work fine on VHF.) The site must be rea- Bibliography at the end of this chapter.) The circuit in Fig-
sonably clear of obstructions, especially steel and concrete ure 22.34A is a 5-turn system tuned to resonance by C1. If
or brick buildings, large metal objects, nearby power lines, the layout is symmetrical, good balance should be obtained.
and so on. If the system operates above 30 MHz, you should L2 helps to achieve this objective by eliminating the need for
also avoid trees and large bushes. An open field makes an direct coupling to the feed terminals of L1. If the loop feed
excellent site. were attached in parallel with C1, a common practice, the
The procedure is to find the transmitter with the RDF chance for imbalance would be considerable.
equipment as if its position were not known, and compare the L2 can be situated just inside or slightly outside of L1; a
RDF null indication with the visual path to the transmitter. 1-inch separation works nicely. The receiver or preamplifier
For antennas having more than one null, each null should be can be connected to terminals A and B of L2, as shown in
checked. Figure 22.34B. C2 controls the amount of coupling between
If imbalance is found in the antenna system, there are two the loop and the preamplifier. The lighter the coupling, the
options available. One is to correct the imbalance. Toward higher is the loop Q, the narrower is the frequency response,

Receiving and Direction-Finding Antennas   22-23

 Figure 22.35 — A wooden frame can be used to contain the
wire of the loop shown in Figure 12.

Figure 22.34 — A multiturn frame antenna is shown at A. L2

is the coupling loop. The drawing at B shows how L2 is con-
nected to a preamplifier.

and the greater is the gain requirement from the preamplifier.

It should be noted that no attempt is being made to match the
extremely low loop impedance to the preamplifier.
A supporting frame for the loop of Figure 22.34 can be
constructed of wood, as shown in Figure 22.35. The dimen-
sions given are for a 1.8-MHz frame antenna. For use on 75
or 40 meters, L1 of Figure 22.34A will require fewer turns,
or the size of the wooden frame should be made somewhat
smaller than that of Figure 22.35.
If electrostatic shielding is desired, the format shown
in Figure 22.36 and Figure 22.37 can be adopted. In this
example, the loop conductor and the single-turn coupling
loop are made from RG-58 coaxial cable. The number of
loop turns should be sufficient to resonate with the tuning
capacitor at the operating frequency. Antenna resonance can
be checked by first connecting C1 (Figure 22.34A) and set-
ting it at midrange. Then connect a small 3-turn coil to the
loop feed terminals, and couple to it with a dip meter. Just Figure 22.36 — An assembled table-top version of the
remember that the pickup coil will act to lower the frequency electrostatically shielded loop. RG-58 cable is used in
slightly from actual resonance. its construction.

22-24   Chapter 22
 Figure 22.38 — At A, the diagram of a ferrite loop. C1 is a dual-
section air-variable capacitor. The circuit at B shows a rod
loop contained in an electrostatic shield channel (see text).
A suitable low-noise preamplifier is shown in Figure 22.41.

Figure 22.37 — Components and assembly details of the

shielded loop shown in Figure 22.36. The dimensions and
values given are for 1.8 MHz operation.

22.2.6 A FERRITE-CORE LOOP FOR

160 METERS
Figure 22.38 contains a diagram for a rod loop (loopstick
antenna). This antenna was also designed by Doug DeMaw,
W1FB (SK), and described in QST for July 1977. The winding
(L1) has the appropriate number of turns to permit resonance
with C1 at the operating frequency. L1 should be spread over
approximately 1⁄3 of the core center. Litz wire will yield the
Figure 22.39 — The assembly at the top of the picture is a
best Q but enameled magnet wire can be used if desired. A shielded ferrite-rod loop for 160 meters. Two rods have been
layer of electrical tape is recommended as a covering for the glued end to end (see text). The other units in the picture
core before adding the wire since ferrite is somewhat abrasive. are a low-pass filter (lower left), broadband preamplifier
L2 functions as a coupling link over the exact center of (lower center) and a Tektronix step attenuator (lower right).
These were part of the test setup used when the antenna
L1. C1 is a dual-section variable capacitor, although a dif- was evaluated.
ferential capacitor might be better toward obtaining optimum
balance. The loop Q is controlled by means of C2, which is a
mica-compression trimmer.
Electrostatic shielding of rod loops can be effected by center of the channel with a screwdriver blade when the loop
centering the rod in a U-shaped aluminum, brass or copper is tuned to an incoming signal. The shield-braid gap in the co-
channel, extending slightly beyond the ends of the rod loop axial loop of Figure 22.37 is maintained for the same reason.
(1 inch is suitable). The open side (top) of the channel can’t Figure 22.39 shows the shielded rod loop assembly.
be closed, as that would constitute a shorted turn and render This antenna was developed experimentally for 160 meters
the antenna useless. This can be proved by shorting across the and uses two 7-inch ferrite rods, glued together end-to-end
Receiving and Direction-Finding Antennas   22-25
with epoxy cement. The longer core resulted in improved response will help to reduce the time spent finding the fox.
sensitivity for weak-signal reception. The other items in the Adding a sensing antenna to the loop is simple to do, and it
photograph were used during the evaluation tests and are not will provide the desired cardioid response. The theoretical
pertinent to this discussion. This loop and the frame loop pattern for this combination is shown in Figure 22.24D.
discussed in the previous section have bidirectional nulls, as Figure 22.40 shows how a sensing element can be
shown in Figure 22.24A. added to a loop or loopstick antenna. The link from the loop
is connected by coaxial cable to the primary of T1, which is
Obtaining a Cardioid Pattern a tuned toroidal transformer with a split secondary winding.
Although the bidirectional pattern of loop antennas C3 is adjusted for peak signal response at the frequency of
can be used effectively in tracking down signal sources by interest (as is C4), then R1 is adjusted for minimum back
means of triangulation, an essentially unidirectional loop response of the loop. It will be necessary to readjust C3 and

Figure 22.40 —
Schematic dia-
gram of a rod-loop
antenna with a
cardioid response.
The sensing an-
tenna, phasing
network and a pre-
amplifier are
shown also. The
secondary of T1
and the primary of
T2 are tuned to
resonance at the
operating frequen-
cy of the loop.
T-68-2 to T-68-6
Amidon toroid
cores are suitable
for both trans-
formers. Amidon
also sells ferrite
rods for this type
of antenna.

Figure 22.41 —
Schematic diagram
of a two-stage
broadband amplifier
patterned after a
design by Wes
Hayward, W7ZOI. T1
and T2 have a 4:1
impedance ratio
and are wound on
FT-50-61 toroid
cores (Amidon)
which have a µi of
125. They contain
12 turns of #24
AWG enamel wire,
bifilar wound. The
capacitors are disc
ceramic. This ampli-
fier should be built
on double-sided
circuit board for
best stability.

22-26   Chapter 22
R1 several times to compensate for the interaction of these have low battery drain and to be lightweight and rugged for
controls. The adjustments are repeated until no further null competitive RDF use.
depth can be obtained. Tests at ARRL Headquarters showed The four-turn loop is tuned to resonance to provide RF
that null depths as great as 40 dB could be obtained with selectivity. Without the sense antenna, the loop alone is bidi-
the circuit of Figure 22.40 on 80 meters. A near-field weak- rectional. With the sense antenna switched in, a cardioid pat-
signal source was used during the tests. tern is obtained. A shielded coupling loop of RG-174 coaxial
The greater the null depth, the lower the signal output cable is used to transfer the signal to the receiver which is
from the system, so plan to include a preamplifier with 25 described in detail in the article.
to 40 dB of gain. Q1 shown in Figure 22.40 will deliver Operation is straightforward — plug in the headphones
approximately 15 dB of gain. In the interest of maintaining and turn on the radio. Adjust the RF gain to max and tune in
a good noise figure, even at 1.8 MHz, Q1 should be a low- the desired signal. Rotate the receiver to find the null in the
noise device. A 2N4416, an MPF102, or a 3N201 MOSFET pattern that is perpendicular to the loop. If the signal is too
would be satisfactory. The circuit of Figure 22.41 can be loud, reduce RF gain and try again. To resolve the direction
used following T2 to obtain an additional 24 dB of gain. The of the transmitter (the loop’s natural pattern is bidirectional)
sensing antenna can be mounted from a few mm to 6 inches rotate the receiver 90° in either direction, switch in the sense
from the loop. The vertical whip need not be more than 12 antenna, and check signal strength. Then rotate the loop 180°
inches long. Some experimenting may be necessary in order and compare — one direction should be stronger than the
to obtain the best results. Optimization will also change with other.
the operating frequency of the antenna.
22.2.8 THE DOUBLE-DUCKY VHF
22.2.7 A SIMPLE DIRECTION-FINDING DIRECTION FINDER
SYSTEM FOR 80 METERS For direction finding, most amateurs use antennas hav-
This section gives an overview of the article by the same ing pronounced directional effects, either a null or a peak in
name in September 2005 QST by Dale Hunt, WB6BYU. signal strength. FM receivers are designed to eliminate the
(The full article is included on this book’s CD-ROM.) The effects of amplitude variations, and so they are difficult to
antenna (a multi-turn loop) and receiver are combined into a use for direction finding without looking at an S meter. Most
single package as shown in Figure 22.42. The receiver was modern HT transceivers do not have S meters.
designed to hear a 1-W signal from up to 3 miles away, to This classic “Double-Ducky” direction finder (DDDF)
was designed by David Geiser, WA2ANU, and was described
in QST for July 1981. It works on the principle of switch-
ing between two nondirectional antennas, as shown in Fig-
ure 22.43. This creates phase modulation on the incoming
signal that is heard easily on the FM receiver. When the
two antennas are exactly the same distance (phase) from
the transmitter, as in Figure 22.44, the tone disappears.
(This technique is also known in the RDF literature as Time-
Difference-of-Arrival, or TDOA, since signals arrive at each
antenna at slightly different times, and hence at slightly dif-
ferent phases, from any direction except on a line perpen-
dicular to and halfway in-between the two antennas. Another
general term for this kind of two-antenna RDF technique is
interferometer. — Ed.)
In theory the antennas may be very close to each other,
but in practice the amount of phase modulation increases
directly with the spacing, up to spac-
ings of a half wavelength. While 1⁄2 l
separation on 2 meters (40 inches)
is pretty large for a mobile array,
1
⁄4 l gives entirely satisfactory re-
sults, and even 1⁄8 l (10 inches) is
acceptable.
Think in terms of two antenna elements with
fixed spacing. Mount them on a ground plane and rotate
that ground plane. The ground plane held above the hik-
Figure 22.42 — The integrated antenna, handle, and receiver are er’s head or car roof reduces the needed height of the array
built into a RadioShack aluminum box. The controls are made to and the directional-distorting effects of the searcher’s body
be operated with one hand while using the antenna. or other conducting objects.

Receiving and Direction-Finding Antennas   22-27

 and, with a bit of reverse bias, looks like a low-capacitance
open space. A bit of forward bias (20 to 50 mA) will load the
intrinsic region with current carriers that are happy to dance
back and forth at a 148-MHz rate, looking like a resistance of
an ohm or so. In a 10-W circuit, the diodes do not dissipate
enough power to damage them.
Because only two antennas are used, the obvious ap-
proach is to connect one diode forward to one antenna, to
connect the other reverse to the second antenna and to drive
the pair with square-wave audio-frequency ac. Figure 22.45
shows the necessary circuitry. RF chokes (Ohmite Z144,
J. W. Miller RFC-144 or similar VHF units) are used to let
the audio through to bias the diodes while blocking RF. Of
course, the reverse bias on one diode is only equal to the for-
ward bias on the other, but in practice this seems sufficient.
A number of PIN diodes were tried in the particular
Figure 22.43 — At the left, AT represents setup built. These were the Hewlett-Packard HP5082-3077,
the antenna of the hidden transmitter, T.
At the right, rapid switching between anten-
the Alpha LE-5407-4, the KSW KS-3542 and the Microwave
nas A1 and A2 at the receiver samples the Associates M/A-COM 47120. All worked well, but the HP
phase at each antenna, creating a pseudo- diodes were used because they provided a slightly lower
Doppler effect. An FM detector detects this SWR (about 3:1).
as phase modulation.
A type 567 IC is used as the square-wave generator.
The output does have a dc bias that is removed with a non-
polarized coupling capacitor. This minor inconvenience is
more than rewarded by the ability of the IC to work well
with between 7 and 15 V (a nominal 9-V minimum is
recommended).
The nonpolarized capacitor is also used for dc blocking
when the function switch is set to XMIT. D3, a light-emitting
diode (LED), is wired in series with the transmit bias to indi-
cate selection of the XMIT mode. In that mode there is a high
battery current drain (20 mA or so). S1 should be a center-off
locking type toggle switch. An ordinary center-off switch
may be used, but beware. If the switch is left on XMIT you will
Figure 22.44 — If both receiving antennas are an equal dis-
soon have dead batteries.
tance (D) from the transmitting antenna, there will be no Cables going from the antenna to the coaxial T connec-
difference in the phase angles of the signals in the receiv- tor were cut to an electrical 1⁄2 l to help the open circuit,
ing antennas. Therefore, the detector will not detect any represented by the reverse-biased diode, look open at the
phase modulation, and the audio tone will disappear from
the output of the detector.
coaxial T. (The length of the line within the T was included
in the calculation.)
The length of the line from the T to the control unit is
not particularly critical. If possible, keep the total of the cable
The DDDF is bidirectional and, as described, its tone length from the T to the control unit to the transceiver under
null points both toward and away from the signal origin. An 8 feet, because the capacitance of the cable does shunt the
L-shaped search path would be needed to resolve the ambigu- square-wave generator output.
ity. Use the techniques of triangulation described earlier in Ground-plane dimensions are not critical. See Fig-
this chapter. ure 22.46. Slightly better results may be obtained with a
larger ground plane than shown. Increasing the spacing be-
Specific Design tween the pickup antennas will give the greatest improve-
It is not possible to find a long-life mechanical switch ment. Every doubling (up to a half wavelength maximum)
operable at a fairly high audio rate, such as 1000 Hz. Yet will cut the width of the null in half. A 1° wide null can be
we want an audible tone, and the 400- to 1000-Hz range is obtained with 20-inch spacing.
perhaps most suitable considering audio amplifiers and aver-
age hearing. Also, if we wish to use the transmit function of DDDF Operation
a transceiver, we need a switch that will carry perhaps 10 W Switch the control unit to DF and advance the drive po-
without much problem. tentiometer until a tone is heard on the desired signal. Do
A solid-state switch, the PIN diode is used. The intrinsic not advance the drive high enough to distort or “hash up” the
region of this type of diode is ordinarily free of current carriers voice. Rotate the antenna for a null in the fundamental tone.
22-28   Chapter 22
 Figure 22.45 — Schematic diagram of the
DDDF circuit. Construction and layout are not
critical. Components inside the broken lines
should be housed inside a shielded enclosure.
Most of the components are available from
RadioShack, except D1, D2, the antennas and
RFC1-RFC3. These components are discussed
in the text. S1 — See text.

Note that a tone an octave higher may appear.

If the incoming signal is quite out of the receiver linear
region (10 kHz or so off frequency), the off-null antenna aim
may present a fairly symmetrical AF output to one side. It
may also show instability at a sharp null position. Aimed to
the other side of a null, it will give a greatly increased AF
output. This is caused by the different parts of the receiver FM
detector curve used. The sudden tone change is the tip-off that
the antenna null position is being passed.
The user should practice with the DDDF to become ac-
quainted with how it behaves under known situations of sig-
nal direction, power and frequency. Even in difficult nulling
situations where a lot of second-harmonic AF exists, rotating
the antenna through the null position causes a very distinc-
tive tone change. With the same frequencies and amplitudes
present, the quality of the tone (timbre) changes. It is as if
a note were first played by a violin, and then the same note
played by a trumpet. (A good part of this is the change of
Figure 22.46 — Ground-plane layout and detail of parts at phase of the fundamental and odd harmonics with respect to
the antenna connectors. the even harmonics.) The listener can recognize differences
Receiving and Direction-Finding Antennas   22-29
(passing through the null) that would give an electronic ana- schedule-40 PVC pipe, crosses and tees that can be found at
lyzer indigestion. any hardware store for the boom and element supports. He
used a simple hairpin match, consisting of a 5-inch length
22.2.9 A COMBINED YAGI — of #14 AWG solid wire bent into the shape of a U, with
INTERFEROMETER VHF ANTENNA the two legs about 3⁄4 inch apart. This gave in a very good
Interferometers give sharp bearings, but they lack sensi- match across the 2 meter band after he tweaked the distance
tivity for distant work. Yagis are sensitive, but they provide (1-inch on his prototype) between the halves of the driven
relatively broad bearings. The Oct 1998 QST article by R. F. element for minimum SWR.
Gillette, W9PE, “A Fox-Hunting DF Twin ‘Tenna” describes You can cut the 1-inch wide tape-measure elements
a three-element Yagi antenna that blends both on a single with a pair of shears, chamfering the ends of the elements.
boom to cover both ends of the hunt. (The article is included Be very careful — the edges are very sharp and will inflict a
on this book’s CD-ROM.) Being rigid, the elements of the nasty cut if you are careless. Use some sandpaper to remove
antenna described in the article make it somewhat imprac- the sharp edges and burrs and put some vinyl electrical tape
tical for competitive DFing in brushy or wooded areas, but or conformal coating such as Plasti-Dip on the ends of the
the design provides a starting point for experimentation and elements to protect yourself from getting cut. Wear safety
modification. glasses while cutting the elements. See Figure 22.47 for
This antenna uses slide switches to configure it as either dimensions.
a Yagi or a single-channel interferometer. When used as an Ken Harker, WM5R recommends using wider tape
interferometer, a GaAs RF microcircuit switches the FM re- measures to provide stiffer elements or stacking thinner ele-
ceiver between two matched dipoles at an audio frequency. ments. He also notes that when taking apart a tape measure,
To make the antenna compact W9PE used hinged, telescopic the internal spring tension can cause the pieces to fly apart.
whips as the elements; they collapse and fold parallel to the Covering the entire element with heat shrink provides ad-
boom for storage. ditional stiffness and comes in a variety of colors. Ken also
To form the interferometer, the two end elements are notes that a handheld-size receiver can be mounted to the
converted to dipoles and the center element is disabled. The boom of a beam to further integrate the package. Plastic
feed line to the receiver is switched from the center element brackets or hook-and-loop fasteners both work well.
to the RF switch output, and the end elements are connected Make sure you scrape or sand the paint off the tape-
via feed lines to the RF switch inputs. measure elements where the feed line is attached. Most tape
Now if both interferometer coax cables are of equal measures have a very durable paint finish designed to stand
length (between the antennas and switch) and the two an- up to heavy use. You do not want the paint to insulate your
tennas are the same distance from the transmitter (broad- feed line connection!
side to it), the signals from both antennas will be in phase. If you are careful, you can solder the feed line to the
Switching from one antenna to the other will have no effect element halves, but take care since the steel tape measure
on the received signal. If one antenna is a little closer to the does not solder easily and the PVC supports can be eas-
transmitter than the other, however, there will be a phase ily melted. Tin the tape-measure elements before mounting
shift when we switch antennas. When the antenna switch them to the PVC cross if you decide to connect the feed line
is at an audio rate, say 700 Hz, the repeated phase shifts in this fashion.
result in a set of 700 Hz sidebands that can be heard by the If you decide not to solder to the tape-measure ele-
operator as in the preceding DDDF design. ments, you can use two other methods to attach the feed
line. One method employs ring terminals on the end of the
22.2.10 A TAPE-MEASURE ELEMENT coax. The ring terminals are then secured under self-tapping
YAGI FOR 2 METERS screws or with 6-32 bolts and nuts into holes drilled in the
Joe Leggio, WB2HOL, designed this antenna while driven-element halves. However, with this method you can-
searching for a beam with a really great front-to-back ratio not fine-tune the antenna by moving the halves of the driven
to use in hidden transmitter hunts. It exhibits a very clean element in and out.
pattern and is perfect for RDF use. You can construct this The simplest method is simply to slide the ends of the
beam using only simple hand tools, and it has been dupli- feed line under the driven element hose clamps and tighten
cated many times. the clamps to hold the ends of the coax. This is low-tech but
WB2HOL’s first design requirement was to be able to it works just fine.
get in and out of his car easily when hunting for a hidden WB2HOL used 11⁄2-inch stainless-steel hose clamps to
transmitter. He accomplished this by using steel “tape-mea- attach each driven-element half to the PVC cross that acts
sure” elements, which fold easily when putting the antenna as its support. This allowed him to fine-tune his antenna
into a car and yet are self supporting. They also hold up well for lowest SWR simply by loosening the hose clamps and
while crashing through the underbrush on a fox hunt. (This sliding the halves of the driven element in or out to lengthen
antenna isn’t designed for mobile use — Ed.) or shorten the element. He achieved a 1:1 SWR at 146.565
WB2HOL decided to use three elements to keep MHz (the local fox-hunt frequency) when the two elements
the boom from getting too long. He used inexpensive were spaced about 1 inch apart. Figure 22.48 shows the
22-30   Chapter 22
Figure 22.47 — Tape-measure beam dimensions.

Receiving and Direction-Finding Antennas   22-31

 Figure 22.49 — Photo of complete tape-measure beam,
ready to hunt foxes!

Figure 22.48 — Photo of driven-element

mounted to PVC tee using hose clamps.
The hairpin match wires are shown here
soldered to the tape-measure elements,
along with the RG-58 feed line.

hose-clamp method for attaching the driven element to the 22.2.11 DIRECTION FINDING
PVC cross, along with the hairpin wire and feed line coax. Fig- BIBLIOGRAPHY
ure 22.49 shows the completed antenna. Source material and more extended discussion of topics
Some builders have used rubber faucet washers be- covered in this chapter can be found in the references given
tween the tape-measure elements and the PVC-cross fittings below and in the textbooks listed at the end of the Antenna
on the director and reflector. These allow for the tape to Fundamentals chapter.
fit the contour of the PVC fitting better and will make the W. U. Amfahr, “Unidirectional Loops for Transmitter
antenna look nicer. It is normal for the reflector and director Hunting,” QST, Mar 1955, pp 28-29.
elements to buckle a bit as they are tightened to the PVC G. Bonaguide, “HF DF — A Technique for Volunteer
tee and cross if you don’t use faucet washers. You can also Monitoring,” QST, Mar 1984, pp 34-36.
eliminate the buckling if you use self-tapping screws to at- D. S. Bond, Radio Direction Finders, 1st edition
tach these elements instead of hose clamps. The beam will (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co).
not be as rugged, however, as when you use hose clamps. R. E. Cowan and T. A. Beery, “Direction Finding with the
The RG-58 coax feed line is wound into an 8-turn coil Interferometer,” QST, Nov 1985, pp 33-37.
along the boom to form the choke balun required to prevent D. DeMaw, “Beat the Noise with a Scoop Loop,” QST,
feed line interaction from distorting the antenna pattern. Jul 1977, pp 30-34.
(RG-174 is much lighter and does not introduce significant D. DeMaw, “Maverick Trackdown,” QST, Jul 1980,
loss in the short length used here — Ed.) The coil is covered pp 22-25.
with electrical tape or tennis racket grip tape to secure it to T. Dorbuck, “Radio Direction-Finding Techniques,” QST,
the boom. Aug 1975, pp 30-36.
This beam has been used on fox hunts, on mountain tops, D. T. Geiser, “Double-Ducky Direction Finder,” QST,
at local public-service events, outdoors, indoors in attics — Jul 1981, pp 11-14.
just about everywhere. The SWR is typically very close to D. T. Geiser, “The Simple Seeker,” The ARRL Antenna
1:1 once adjusted. Front-to-back performance is exactly as Compendium, Vol 3, p 126.
predicted. The null in the rear of the pattern is perfect for G. Gercke, “Radio Direction/Range Finder,” 73, Dec 1971,
transmitter hunts. pp 29-30.

22-32   Chapter 22
N. K. Holter, “Radio Foxhunting in Europe,” Parts 1 and 2, L. R. Norberg, “Transmitter Hunting with the DF Loop,”
QST, Aug 1976, pp 53-57 and Nov 1976, pp 43-46. QST, Apr 1954, pp 32-33.
J. Isaacs, “Transmitter Hunting on 75 Meters,” QST, Jun P. O’Dell, “Simple Antenna and S-Meter Modification for
1958, pp 38-41. 2-Meter FM Direction Finding,” Basic Amateur Radio,
H. Jasik, Antenna Engineering Handbook, 1st edition QST, Mar 1981, pp 43-47.
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1961). Ramo and Whinnery, Fields and Waves in Modern Radio
R. Keen, Wireless Direction Finding, 3rd edition (London: (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1944).
Wireless World). F. Terman, Electronic and Radio Engineering (New York:
J. Kraus, Antennas, 2nd edition (New York: McGraw-Hill McGraw-Hill Book Co, 1955).
Book Co, 1988). For more information on direction finding, see Radio
J. Kraus, Electromagnetics, 4th edition (New York: Orienteering-The ARDF Handbook by Bob Titterington,
McGraw-Hill Book Co, 1992). G3ORY, David Williams, M3WDD and David Deane,
C. M. Maer, Jr., “The Snoop-Loop,” QST, Feb 1957, G3ZOI and Transmitter Hunting: Radio Direction Finding
pp 11-14. Simplified, by Joe Moell, KØOV, and Thomas Curlee,
M. C. Mallette, “The Four-Way DFer,” QST, Nov 1995, WB6UZZ. These books are available from your local dealer
pp 29-35. or can be ordered directly from ARRL( www.arrl.org/shop).

Receiving and Direction-Finding Antennas   22-33

Antenna Fundamentals   1-1