Ham Radio Help Desk

For quite a few years I have used the DX Engineering Maxi-Core Balun model number BAL050-H05-A.

I needed some quick deploy Baluns for the 80 Meter Turnstile Antenna covered earlier on Ham Help Desk.

Also purchased were two DXE-UWA8X-KIT products which provide hoisting points and strain relief for RG-8 size coax.
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Figuring out the details of the APRS “new paradigm” WIDEn-n technique has been a bit of a learning curve for me. I stumbled onto this web site which contains a good summary of the various modes.

http://www.nwaprs.info/

This site helped me shorten my APRS learning curve.

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.”
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