In the never ending quest to improve our HF mobile ops for the Virginia QSO Party we finally decided to try a small loop.
There is nothing new about small loop antennas. They have been discussed in the literature for decades. The ARRL has some very old articles about them in the 1968 March and July editions.
Constantine A. Balanis’ book on Antenna Theory discusses and defines large vs. small loops. This book is an essential reference if you seek the details on how loops work. The loop described below fits into the “small loop” category where the currents along the conductor are, for all practical purposes, constant. This is unlike full size antennas where current reaches a minimum where voltage approaches maximum. Since this loop is electrically short with respect to wavelength, current does not change “much.”
