It produces the highest gain possible for 11 meters. I hand tuned just about every shape and size possible, this is almost the best gain I could create, I also have one up that is this shape, though not right on these numbers. I hope somebody else will give this a go. Always up to find the best loop. They are hands down my fave antenna for local and Dx. I keep a pair on the roof at 36 feet to the feed, have one for vertical, and one for horizontal at the moment. I take them down when the weather is good and tune the shapes often, I have them top hung on pulleys. I did model a few with higher gain they were either way to big to hang, or to complex to build. For a single wire loop with 2 ish swr, this is the winner so far, after about 4 weeks of playing. The swr will be lower, as this model does not include the 1/4 wl coax 75 ohm matching line. So getting the swr down in the 1.5 : 1 should not be a problem, and has always been possible on all my loop experiments so far. Also the closer to round, IE the more area a loop antenna contains, the higher the gain is. A circle being said to be the best, This gets the area up while still being easy enough to top hang with three cross spreaders. I use very light cross spars, usually a wood top spar, and the middle and bottom are usually 1/4 inch drive way marker rods, from the dollar store, if a cord is run from the top for center support, they hang well and the whole rig is very light in weight. I use number 14 or 18 stranded copper wire for the loop. I usually run 75 ohm coax, from the loop into the house.I'm curious.
Any particular reason for this shape?
That was one of my first loops for sure, they work very well. Nothing I like better. I have had , 5/8th, j-pole,2 el beam, 4 el beam, Dipoles, Moxon, In the air I like a loop, on the ground for portable , I like a vertical dipole, with a bent lower leg on the 45. Thos are my go-to antenna.
Here is the mmana-gal, .mma file for this loop. Great free modeling software. Not to hard to learn, and great fun to use. You can download mmana-gal at this link. At the bottom of the page click on """Basic version MMANA-GAL (free, ~ 2,62 MB, current version 3.0.0.30)"""""""
http://gal-ana.de/basicmm/en/#18
xm49,I did not try and unzip your file above that you posted as "mgmg my best loop.zip".
Not sure, but I think those files should open automatically with a file extension xxxxx.maa
Should we unzip the fill.
I entered this previous model from the images you posted. With the feed point set to horizontal the match was very good, right out of the box, using 75 ohm coax.
The vertical side was resonant but the resistance was 172.8 ohms with 50 ohm coax and was 2.305 ohms with 75 ohm coax and I made no attempt to match it. As you will see, the vertical side pattern showed 5.83 dbi gain at 11* degrees regardless of the mismatch. I also did not run these models in Free Space so as to check the Average Gain Results for model accuracy.
The pattern was similar to your image on post #1, but in your modeling details it showed it was horizontal. I think I see the feed point location at the 9:00 o'clock position, right?
Below are my two Eznec models in a PFD files. Just click on the "Open With" button in the pop-up window.
Homer, were you able to open xm49north7 zip file?