Don't have much space but want to get on HF? A magnetic loop can be effective.
A problem in some cases is they need lots of thick heavy metal to be efficient.
Another approach is to use a longer but thinner conductor wrapped around or supported by a timber frame.
Efficiency is not necessarily very good but you may still be able to get a signal out, especially if using efficient digital modes like WSPR. And frame antennas can work very well on receive.
Here are a couple of 3.5 MHz frame antenna ideas to think about:
* DL1GSJ 80m frame antenna
You would no doubt be able to redimension them for other bands.
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Hi Peter,
ReplyDeleteHere is a link to a multi-turn loop calculator:
https://comtech.vsb.cz/mlacalc/
It is in Czech but an English version is available by clicking the English flag in the top right corner of the page.
I've used this calculator to build a 2 turn loop for 40m using LMR400 coax and an MFJ-19 butterfly cap. It works well on my small condo balcony using FT8 and CW.
73,
Paul VA3ZC