Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Giuseppe Morlè (IZ0GZW), who writes:
Dear Thomas and SWLing Post friends,
I am Giuseppe Morlè from Formia, in central Italy on the Tyrrhenian Sea.
I’d like to introduce you to yet another loop antenna I’ve built using a large crate—the kind that used to hold tomatoes for homemade sauce. It measures 60 x 40 cm.
There are three separate windings wrapped around the crate: 1 turn, 2 turns, and 10 turns of telephone twisted-pair wire, which fits perfectly around the crate.
Two separate variable capacitors are used for tuning—one 1000 pF and one 50 pF. The first tunes frequencies from 500 kHz up to 16 MHz; the second covers 13 to 30 MHz.
Alligator clips are soldered to the ends of each winding, allowing me to switch windings depending on the frequency being used.
I call it the “Cassettone Pomodori Loop Antenna.”
I’ve attached several videos showing tests conducted on my roof during the early morning and evening. I find it performs really well with Tecsun portable radios. In the morning, I could listen to the USA on the 40-meter band with very good signal quality. In the evening, I picked up many European and Mediterranean stations on medium wave. At 16:00 UTC, I was able to hear Radio Taiwan on 1557 kHz with a decent signal.
It’s great fun and didn’t cost a penny—all the materials are recycled.
I hope you all like it.
Best regards to you and all the friends at SWLing Post.
73 de Giuseppe Morlè, IZ0GZW
Videos
