Magnetic Loop Antenna Selfmade epicenter W6NBC

Info: Rectangular loop, PVC pipe wrapped with aluminum foil. The frequency is tuned by sliding an aluminum-foil-covered tube back and forth in the upper segment.
Conductor: PVC pipe wrapped with aluminum foil.
Capacitor: Variable capacitor made from telescoping PVC pipes wrapped with aluminum foil.
Environment: Outdoor, details unknown.
Thanks: Many thanks to W6NBC (Silent Key) for the many publicly available contributions.

Antenna Efficiency Overview

Band 40m 10m
Frequency f MHz 6.940 31.870
Intrinsic bandwidth Bint kHz 200.0 700.0
Source of Bint SWR screenshot
Loop diameter D m 1.376
Conductor diameter d m 0.048
Loop count n 1 1
Inductance L H 2.96e-06
Capacitance C pF 177 8.41
Unloaded Q0 1 35 46
Damping resistance RT Ohm 3.725 13.038
Radiation resistance RR Ohm 0.0199 9.725
Loss resistance RLoss Ohm 3.705 3.314
Power to antenna Pfwd W 50 50
swr_min 1 2.70 1.10
etaSWR_ant % 78.9 99.8
Power antenna load Pload W 39 50
Antenna efficiency η % 0.421 74.4
Loop current I rms A 3.25 1.96
Loop voltage Uloop rms V 421 1161
Magnetic dipole moment m A m² 4.837 2.908
Link to calculator calculator calculator

Measurement Info

A video showed measured SWR versus frequency diagrams. I tried to estimate the corresponding bandwidths. This was reasonably possible for the 10 m band, but for the 40 m band it is only a rough estimate because the SWR was not tuned to 1.0, and from the measured values it is not clear whether the coupling is too strong or too weak.


Overview of all Antennas with filter/selection: compare page
Overview of all Antennas static: static compare page
2026 Peter Märki (HB9ISP). This project is created in my free time and has no commercial background. Provided without warranty of any kind. Feedback is welcome.