The AM Forum

Each winter I enjoy experimenting with a new antenna for 160 m. I don’t have a huge amount of space so these are somewhat compromised antennas. The amount of electronic noise increases every year so this year‘s project is to come up with a lower noise, receive only antenna. I’m thinking of making a loop of about 200 feet of wire and literally laying it on the ground around my backyard. I’ll try using either a 4:1 or 9:1 balun. Any suggestions or comments on this idea or any others would be appreciated.

I have done the "Beverage on Ground" with insulated  wire in a straight line (more or less) in lengths from 80 ft to one that was over 500 ft.  I once did the" antenna on ice " was working out of a remote Alaska lake cabin and strung my wire out  on the ice.  2 ft of snow on top never affected the antenna.    I did a loop on ground around the backyard wooden fence that worked well.  It was about 300 ft.  All of these receive antennas worked very well and my experience with low to the ground, or on the ground wires  shows them to be low noise .  good sig to noise ratio and weaker signal strength than higher antennas. I find them useful for the higher HF bands as well as 160M. On open ended or terminated antennas I just figure anything over 100 ft to be about 500-600 ohms and wind my transformer to match the feedline.  I have used 50 and 75 ohm coax . Loops I feed with coax directly.   I havent tried a matching transformer on them.   YMMV    Gud Luk..   Steve

I have one of these things.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/355026255362?hash=item52a936be02:g:v54AAOSwoFxk~LME&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA8E8vTrLTF8Ay1Fg%2FjPj7PnLACsm2Ri85v%2FRUaVpQg3jqD6tHCLD8GITb8HIZxlFcpJFJsL9XWPxEiPHmGyyQWQaln2lBk7wa2aazeL15PErqMnF11gtj4MaMmjg6agq1JxIcHKKcj2gb7rAgCFTBC1gxUj%2BdL9Lrrumez2R0TNsNkw9S2ZQYPk1HgVv68Pwz1OpWYfaseQSIVPJGPGy4tK4cOWpdL1Yq5AjaZVZYvV1mWeJAzNd3IyLXA3AbbpghfW07IxXRZYOiPTYpD9O4oAlvMfJVtBvZFBJBBFpGsfeUUdvHoO5q2mAyG70CDn8UFA%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR6rN7LTaYg
It's the X-phase qrm canceller.  It isn't a Timewave or an Antec, but it works well for the money.  You set up a "noise" antenna and play with amplitude and phase to cancel out some of the noise.  They sell one all dolled up in an enclosure for more money if you search for more X-phase items.  I sprung for the cheap one.
73 de Norm W1ITT

I run one of those English shielded loops & rotor, about 5' off the ground.

Amazing anywhere from AMBC to 10m.

73DG

So I already use a PIXEL magnetic loop and I also have a a Timewave ANC-4.
Actually, I use the loop as my sense antenna. The ground loop antenna is just an idea I had, something to experiment with this winter. Last winter, 160 propagation was POOR - very few DX stations.

I read that as the sunspot numbers increase, 160 / 75 DX declines and it sure looks that way. I'm thinking that with less noise, I may be able to hear more. The other night I used PSK RPORTER on 160 to see how far I was getting out. Two stations, Wales and Netherlands, heard me, but that was it. Each of them were only hearing 3 stations from US, me being one of  them.

Any loop on ground or beverage will have a very low signal output, will work best with a low noise preamplifier.  I prefer tunable ones with some good selectivity to minimize cross mod interference from things like local BCB stations. I’m currently using a vintage twin Nuvistor Ameco preselector/preamp, tunes from 160 to 6 meters, about 20 dB gain.

Also consider a pair of K9AY vertical receiving loops. Have a pair here that work quite well, easy to build.

I use a PIXEL amplified loop on an 8' pipe stuck in the ground with a small rotor.
It works well for 160 through 20 and has a 40db front to side null.
I use it with vintage AM gear and modern TS-890 transceiver.
I have a DXE broadband amp inline under the desk that is used with the old AM gear but for the 890 the DXE amp is straight through and i use the internal preamp with the 890....although it works just as well using the DXE amp all the time.
Or...I can use the loop with only it's amp at the antenna for much better S/N.