AM DX - "Hula-Loop" NG9D Antenna Demonstration

[MixxiePixxie]

Just wondering what station that was on 600 kHz if you were in Ceder Rapids, Iowa? It wasn't WREC in Memphis was it, because if it was that would make the performance of that antenna nothing short of miraculous. I live only about 75 miles south of Memphis and can barely pick up WREC even at night. Anyway, how did you get the wire inside the hula-hoop please?

[NG9D]

@MixxiePixxie Hi! RCVR NR Chicago & STN WMT/Cedar Rapids - After the hoop is separated, the wires were threaded into the hoop by pushing them. If you try this, you may find that HDPE insulated 20 guage solid conductor wire works pretty well. But even so, after several turns the wires started to bind, so I sprayed a bit of furniture polish wax on them to reduce friction. That enabled inserting 11 turns into the small diameter tube - Instead of a hoop you could use open wire on wooden frame.

[luketrash]

I just got my first shortwave receiver (the G6) and saw this linked to someone else's video using a slinky antenna. I grew up in Cedar Rapids, so I remember listening to AM 600 quite a bit. Cool video and cool project!

[wx9dx]

How many turn of wire was this? Oh and what value cap? Thanks!!

Jimmy, WX9DX

[NG9D]

@wx9dx Hi Jimmy. 11 turns of 20 gage wire w/ ~40 to 365pf variable cap. The wire is explained in the video annotations (turn on the "captions" feature of YouTube). Thanks for the question. 73 de NG9D . .

[urbex2007]

Great demo, I must experiment.



[rasputinsdog]

WOW!!! I'm a believer!! That signal went from nothing to 20 over!

[kc7fys]

FB, I see that you operated as ZS6.

[kc7fys]

Ha ha... I have been on that station! When I was a kid, we were in the 'Scholar Bowl' quiz show. I failed miserably in the topic of Earth Science--but got on the radio. We listened to countless hundreds of hours of WMT in the barn milking cows. I'm building your loop, sir. I have a similar SW receiver.

[KC8YOQ]

What is the value of the cap?

[NG9D]

KC8YOQ DE NG9D - THAT CAP IS AN OLD 365pF THE KIND USED LONG AGO IN AM BC RADIOS. YOU CAN ALSO USE VARICAPS, A LITTLE L-C EXPERIMENT! 73 DE NG9D . .

[KC8YOQ]

I looked in all my old bcb radios BUT no luck! Do you have one that you wish to get rid of?

[trygvefileserver]

tuning to propaganda=) nice setup

[uploadJ]

Nice demo; Thanks for posting.

[KD5NJR]

You can clearly see how the hula hoop coil couples to the antenna and how the capacitor helps tunes the L-C circuit. Very clever demo.