QRP Indoor Loop

QRP Indoor Loop

For QRP operation with limited space, a compact and lightweight 'magnetic' loop antenna was built. For the first design (which leaves room for improvement), a long thin piece of aluminium sheet was used (3.14 meters total circumfence, 50 mm wide, 2 mm thickness)

Unlike most classic loop designs, the tuning capacitor and the smaller coupling loop are both at the base of the antenna. The tuning capacitor with approximately 20 ... 250 pF should be replaced with a 'butterfly'-design, but these are either difficult to find or too expensive, so a 'normal' variable capacitor scrapped from an old antenna tuner was used. With this arrangement, the resonant tuning range was 7 to 21 MHz. With a "better" capacitor (lower minimum capacity), tuning above 21 MHz could be easier.

The small neon lamp on the right side of the capacitor initially acted as a tuning aid. One of its legs is connected to the outer loop, the other leg is only capacitively coupled to the other electrode of the tuning capacitor. It later turned out that adjusting the loop for resonance 'by ear' brings the SWR low enough before transmitting (at QRP levels!), the 'fine tuning' should be done with an SWR meter.
The coupling loop's optimum length (circumfence) was found to be 0.6 meters, which is roughly 1/5th of the outer loop's circumfence, which agrees with many other 'magnetic loop recipes' (for example Rothammel's Antenna Book).
Note that unlike other designs, the small coupling loop of this antenna does not touch the larger outer loop ! If it would, the only point where both loops may touch would be the topmost point, which is 'electically neutral' (voltage minimum of the outer loop).
Due to the lack of an electric connection between the loops, there is also no need for a balun !

The plastic 'insulator' at the bottom holds both loops, and the tuning capacitor in place. The entire loop (including insulator) can be rotated on the wooden base, using a single screw visible in the center of the last photograph.
To eliminate the need for a vernier drive, and to stay away from the tuning capacitor, an plastic lever is used to operate it.

Ideas / possible improvements

The electric conductance of the aluminium loop (measured at DC by passing 2 amperes through the loop, and measuring the voltage - 3 mV - across the loop close to its ends) was found larger than it should have been. Calculation:

       sigma = ( Current * Length ) / ( Voltage * Conducting_Area )
   here:
       sigma = ( 2 A  *  3 m ) / ( 0.003 V * 0.002 m * 0.05 m ) = 20 * 10^6 Siemens / meter
       
     (In Germany, 'sigma' [σ] denotes the electrical conductance.
      In the English literature, 'kappa' [κ] seems more common.)
   

The electrical conductivity of pure aluminium would be 36.6 Mega-Siemens per meter; and a loop made of pure copper would be even better (sigma = 58 Mega-Siemens per meter).
Since most of the HF current only flows in the outer few micrometers of the conductor, the loop doesn't have to be "solid". A loop made of a long (bent) piece of plastic, carrying a long strip of copper foil (say 70 micrometers thick, and 50 mm wide) would be even lighter than this loop. Experimentation will tell if the reduced loss in the loop is worth the effort, considering the loss in the capacitor. A thin copper loop in combination with a 'butterfly' capacitor, or -even better- a variable vacuum capacitor will help to cut the losses in the loop even further. But at some point losses in the vincinity of the loop (walls, floors, ceilings, eddy currents in metal objects, etc) will dominate, and it possibly doesn't pay off to reduce the losses in the antenna itself.

http://www.qsl.net/dl4yhf/qrp/index.html#indoor_loop