Foundations Of Amateur Radio

Foundations of Amateur Radio Today I learned something new. A good antenna makes a big difference and you can hear it. Of late, I've been using the antennas on the boot of my car and have for some time all but abandoned my 12m spider-beam squid pole. As you might recall, the very first antenna I ever built was a quasi-random length vertical with 16 radials. Each of the 17 wires is about 12.5 meters long, so there is a lot of wire, wound onto a garden hose reel for transport, lots of effort in setting up, lining up and stuff to do before I can actually get on air. In a HF quiet area it works pretty well but it's too big for most back yards; it takes up a circle of 25m diameter and needs either guy wires or a car at the base. I went back to the drawing board. Using my trusty SG237 antenna coupler, I found a design online for a delta-loop. It's 120 foot or just over 36.5 meters of wire, setup in a triangle with the SGC coupler at the middle of the base. Yes, I know, the take-off angle isn't optimal, but oh my