I like to play with antennas.  For the last several months I have been using a full wave loop antenna in my backyard tuned to 3.905 MHz erected 10 feet above the ground, feeding the shack using coax through a 2:1 balun.  Obviously it is an NVIS antenna but I was looking for a lower noise alternative to my doublet fed with a window line.  I was using my IC-7100 to feed it so I didn’t have to change the settings on my IC-7300 (my primary HF radio).  I finally did an A-B test between the two setups and the Doublet clearly won.  The loop wire is now back on the spool.  

Since we are near the peak of the sunspot cycle, the 10 meter band is hopping.  It is a daytime band which can give great results and then nothing.  The coverage moves with the sun so you can do Europe in the morning and Asia in the afternoon.  I built a 10 meter vertical Moxon antenna to do some testing with gain and directivity.  Some sources tell me that for HF DX the difference between horizontal and vertical polarization is insignificant.  I plan on building a horizontal Moxon to compare. The nice thing about 10M antennas is their small (relatively speaking) size.   At any rate, when I threw out a CQ on 10M FT-8, I had an immediate pile up.  You would think that Delaware is some remote DX entity!  The important thing is to try what works for you as you get out there and play radio.

Be radio active!

Jim Moore KC3BTV

President KCARC