Since this post is already titled antenna's I won't start a new thread and people can share their antenna information here.
I've heard good things of Delta Loop antennas over the years but never had the space to install one. I've been on the receiving end of many loops and they are quite impressive.
This weekend I completed the installation of my Delta Loop Multi band HF antenna. With the help of Wrightwood, Robert W, Boston Bob and the infamous Johon the tree climber we were able to get about 297' of wire run through the trees at the 35' elevation mark. In my reading and discussing Delta Loop's with other Hams who have used them for HF, the optimum height above ground for Delta Loops is 35-40 feet. The feed point is lower but it doesn't seem to matter much.
The antenna is fed with approximately 50' of RG-214 coax into a Centaur 4.1 Balun. Centaure makes the best in the business for baluns and they are pricey. The balun was 130 bucks several years ago when I purchased it for another antenna brainstorm that never materialized. A 4.1 Balun is used instead of a 1.1 balun because of the impedance of the length of wire. 450 ohm. ladder feedline could have been used but keeping that stuff away from metallic objects would have been difficult. The wire is supported from the trees with UV resisted guy wire material covered in PVC to ward off the critters. The antenna is almost invisible running around the property. If it were not the mast present for the Balun support, no one would know it's there. The wire has enough flex for tree movement during winds without coming in contact with obstructions.
Now for the test. It had surprisingly a low SWR given it wasn't cut for a resonate frq. No surprise there as a lot of Delta Loops aren't. I did not need an external antenna tuner, as the internal antenna tuner tunes it up quickly on all bands from 80mtrs. - 10mtrs. including the WARC bands. Which makes me happy because now I've got a good player on 17mtrs. which is where I made my first contact with it.
Later that afternoon and all the tools put away I sat down for some contacts. With 20mtr.s being my favorite band for DX'ng I started there. I had a few stateside contacts and then came across an opening into Europe. That was a little tougher getting into England and Spain because of the pile up. I'm used to pointing a beam and tossing about 800 watts in one direction. I finally got in and exchanged information. The band died out quickly and moved on to 40mtrs. Another favorite of mine but still haven't got WAS on that band yet. After working several stations with good reports, I think I can easily get WAS on 40 with this antenna in no time. I ran across a three way with a guy in Co. In. and Tx. I joined in with them and they were also giving me some 10 over 9 reports with some 20 over as the band changed. After a while, a few more operators chimed in from back east. Ct. Mn. Ky. and Mi. I chatted with all these guys for about almost two hours and had to peel off for dinner.
I drew up a map of the tree locations and length of wire between the trees. I plan to visit my buddy at work who works at our onsite antenna range and have him plot my theoretical pattern with his mega buck software. I'd like to see what the pattern and take off angles are....just curious to see what it's doing in space above ground. Hopefully he can provide me a .jpeg like he did for my repeater installation that I can post later.
While I like and still prefer Yagi's for HF work I found this antenna especially nice because I could hear everyone without rotating the beam to try and find a neutral direction. It's difficult to point toward Mi. and expect to hear a Tx. station in the group with a HF Yagi.
The most expensive part of this antenna was the tree climber.
I think I'm going to like this antenna.
