{"id":49295,"date":"2021-06-17T07:52:13","date_gmt":"2021-06-17T11:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=49295"},"modified":"2021-06-17T07:52:13","modified_gmt":"2021-06-17T11:52:13","slug":"jock-designs-a-horizontal-room-loop-to-cope-with-reception-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/jock-designs-a-horizontal-room-loop-to-cope-with-reception-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Jock designs a Horizontal Room Loop to cope with reception issues"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many thanks to SWLing Post<\/em> contributor, Jock Elliott, who shares the following guest post:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>

There\u2019s a 50-foot antenna in this room. Can you spot it?<\/p><\/div>\n

Got reception issues? <\/b>An idea worth considering: the \u201cHorizontal Room Loop.\u201d<\/b><\/h1>\n

by Jock Elliott (KB2GOM)<\/strong><\/p>\n

When my radio room was in the front of the house (on the east side), it was easy to run a feedline to a large RF-hungry SWL dipole with various stubs and feeders.<\/p>\n

Now, however, with my “shack” moved to the SW corner of the house, any attempt to mount an outdoor antenna of any significant length raised potential safety issues because of nearby electrical lines.<\/p>\n

Monitoring VHF\/UHF is no big deal because of high-performance scanner antennas. HF, however, presents challenges.<\/p>\n

My main SWL receiver is a Satellit 800, which has the guts of a Drake R8 and also has a large telescoping vertical antenna. It works okay, but I wanted more signal. I had been looking at small loops and got some great recommendations on Radio Reference<\/a>, but then I had a thought: what if I turned the 8′ x 12′ room into a giant horizontal passive loop?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Here\u2019s a hint.<\/p><\/div>\n

So I called a ham friend and ran the idea by him. “Sure,” he said, “give it a try.” He gave me 25 feet of 4-conductor phone wire. Before I could use it, I had to strip off the outer insulation so I could get at the four separate insulated wires inside. The better half helped. Once I had the four wires, I connected two of them together and ran the resultant 50-foot strand around the perimeter of the room by taping the wire to the top of window frames and hiding the wire on the top shelves of book cases. As a result, the horizontal room loop is near the ceiling, about 7 feet in the air, and the room itself is on the first floor.<\/p>\n

With the loop in place, I hooked the ends to the clip-in terminals on the back of the Satellit 800.<\/p>\n

There’s a switch on the back of the 800 that allows me to quickly compare the loop with the radio’s built-in vertical antenna. And . . . it works! It pulls in more signal than the vertical (as measured on the signal strength meter), but I have not noticed a dramatic reduction in noise. On some stations, the horizontal room loop brings the signal up to full scale, and then the sound is very agreeable indeed.<\/p>\n

In all, I am pleased with the results.<\/p>\n

For anyone who wants squeeze more performance out of their shortwave receiver, I can recommend giving the horizontal room loop a try. It’s not expensive; it’s relatively easy to do (and undo if you don’t like the results), and just might improve your shortwave reception.<\/p>\n

If you are not blessed with a bunch of window frames on which you could tape the wire for your room loop, you\u2019ll have to get creative, but with lightweight wire, you don\u2019t need a massive support structure. Tape, map tacks, or even self-adhesive Velcro segments might work for putting your room loop in place.<\/p>\n

I don’t claim that this is the “ultimate” SWL DX antenna, but it certainly improved my situation. Perhaps others have suggestions for improving it.<\/p>\n

— Jock Elliott, KB2GOM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Jock Elliott, who shares the following guest post: Got reception issues? An idea worth considering: the \u201cHorizontal Room Loop.\u201d by Jock Elliott (KB2GOM) When my radio room was in the front of the house (on the east side), it was easy to run a feedline to a large RF-hungry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3607,3194,627,3,43],"tags":[6700,5833,4342,9322,7280,9323,4667,4172,7281,2834],"class_list":["post-49295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-antennas","category-guest-posts","category-how-to","category-news","category-shortwave-radio","tag-affordable-swl-antennas","tag-antenna-testing","tag-guest-posts","tag-horizontal-room-loop","tag-indoor-shortwave-antennas","tag-jock-elliott-kb2gom","tag-loop-antennas","tag-low-profile-antennas","tag-shortwave-antennas-apartments","tag-shortwave-wire-antenna"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pn3uc-cP5","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":61335,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2024\/12\/here-we-go-loop-de-loop-in-which-your-humble-correspondent-tests-a-hypothesis\/","url_meta":{"origin":49295,"position":0},"title":"Here we go loop de loop . . . in which your humble correspondent tests a hypothesis","author":"Jock Elliott","date":"December 10, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"By Jock Elliott, KB2GOM It was this post by Alan -- https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2024\/11\/bbc-rd-how-to-test-a-loop-antenna\/ -- that set me off. After downloading the BBC report on how to test a loop antenna, I noticed the following in it: \u201cPolarisation Illustrations of the antenna usually show it mounted upright; that is, with its axis\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Antennas"","block_context":{"text":"Antennas","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/antennas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/MW-amp-001-1024x431.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/MW-amp-001-1024x431.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/MW-amp-001-1024x431.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":52581,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2022\/05\/the-satellit-800-the-tecsun-pl-880-and-two-indoor-antennas-an-afternoon-of-experimentation\/","url_meta":{"origin":49295,"position":1},"title":"The Satellit 800, the Tecsun PL-880, and two indoor antennas \u2013 an afternoon of experimentation","author":"Thomas","date":"May 1, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to\u00a0SWLing Post\u00a0contributor,\u00a0Jock Elliott, who shares the following guest post: The Satellit 800, the Tecsun PL-880, and two indoor antennas \u2013 an afternoon of experimentation By Jock Elliott, KB2GOM A search for \u201cshortwave listening antennas\u201d on the internet landed me on the page for the Par EndFedz\u00ae EF-SWL receive\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Antennas"","block_context":{"text":"Antennas","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/antennas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/TG6-PL880-wire-antenna-001-001-Medium.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/TG6-PL880-wire-antenna-001-001-Medium.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/TG6-PL880-wire-antenna-001-001-Medium.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":64272,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/a-huge-difference\/","url_meta":{"origin":49295,"position":2},"title":"A HUGE difference . . .","author":"Jock Elliott","date":"October 14, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"By Jock Elliott, KB2GOM It was a remark from Sebastian Schl\u00fcter in response to this post \u2013 https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/some-really-inexpensive-ways-to-perhaps-improve-your-shortwave-listening -- that sparked today\u2019s post. He said: If your RFI is really high, your best weapon is a magnetic loop antenna aka small receive loop. At home, my RFI is so high\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Antennas"","block_context":{"text":"Antennas","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/antennas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Loop-antenna-002-001-1024x669.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Loop-antenna-002-001-1024x669.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Loop-antenna-002-001-1024x669.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":54322,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/testing-the-mfj-1886-receive-loop-antenna\/","url_meta":{"origin":49295,"position":3},"title":"Testing the MFJ-1886 Receive Loop Antenna","author":"Jock Elliott","date":"October 12, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"By Jock Elliott, KB2GOM Hang out any place online where shortwave listeners gather, and you won\u2019t have to wait long before you hear something like this: \u201cI recently moved to a condo, apartment, or house where there is a home-owners association. Listening conditions are pretty rotten, and I cannot string\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Antennas"","block_context":{"text":"Antennas","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/antennas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/MFJ-1886-005-001-1024x936.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/MFJ-1886-005-001-1024x936.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/MFJ-1886-005-001-1024x936.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":61431,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2024\/12\/a-file-worth-having-bobs-guide-to-building-an-electrically-small-resonant-loop-antenna-for-mediumwave-reception\/","url_meta":{"origin":49295,"position":4},"title":"A File Worth Having: Bob’s guide to building an Electrically Small Resonant Loop Antenna for Mediumwave Reception","author":"Jock Elliott","date":"December 17, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"This post is short and sweet. If you click here--Electrically Small Resonant Loop Antenna for Mediumwave Reception (PDF)--you can download a copy of Bob Colegrove's excellent paper on the Electrically Small Resonant Loop Antenna for Mediumwave Reception. He has actually built this antenna; it works; and he uses it often.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AM"","block_context":{"text":"AM","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/am\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Bob-Homemade-Loop-antenna-1.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Bob-Homemade-Loop-antenna-1.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Bob-Homemade-Loop-antenna-1.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Bob-Homemade-Loop-antenna-1.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Bob-Homemade-Loop-antenna-1.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":61402,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2024\/12\/the-great-gonzo-radio-experiment\/","url_meta":{"origin":49295,"position":5},"title":"The Great Gonzo Radio Experiment","author":"Jock Elliott","date":"December 14, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"By Jock Elliott, KB2GOM It\u2019s funny how you can start out thinking about how to solve a problem, the whole process takes a turn, and you wind up with an unexpected but pleasing result. It all started innocently enough. Alan posted this \u2014 https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2024\/11\/bbc-rd-how-to-test-a-loop-antenna\/ \u2014 and this statement appeared at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Antennas"","block_context":{"text":"Antennas","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/antennas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Great-radio-experiment-and-skies-019-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Great-radio-experiment-and-skies-019-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Great-radio-experiment-and-skies-019-1024x768.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49295\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}