AM Broadcast Band Tunable Loop Antenna

for those of you who follow my videos you know that I've been in the throes of building a tunable loop antenna my first one never built one before anyway it turned out pretty good it turned out better than I expected gosh I tell you that I and boy does this thing work so I thought I would go ahead and do a separate video and not included in my mishmash videos you know just do a separate video and by itself and now it's not exactly a thousand percent perfect but I told you it would not be perfect in the beginning there are some little boo-boos that I don't personally like but most people wouldn't even notice them however I thought I'd explain a little bit to you of what it is and then give you a little demo on the radio all I did was take a couple of wooden bars left and right I stained them I toned them and I hooked them all together on this vertical mast using some plastic that I had cut out and good long brass screws with flat washers down the other side I've got a flat washer a lock washer and a nut I'll show you that then I decided to put her you know I read you know fake jewel in the center I thought that was kind of neat that that's kind of a that's kind of my little touch there I think these things should be decorative rather than just functional they can be both okay now down here at the bottom is a tuner knob I have a switch that goes up and down now what that switch does is it throws in another 360 picofarad capacitor in parallel with the tuner so I can get down below 700 kilocycles I could have put a larger tuner in there but it would have been I think too big and gaudy and too heavy so I decided to go with an idea I found on the internet where you just throw any capacitor by flipping up the switch once you get down around 700 kill cycles works perfectly then of course just a couple of old banana plugs right there mounted the whole thing to the bottom I choose 'old a hole out and then sunk the whole thing down in and then for strength I ran a screw up through the bottom into the senator wooden also mounted up a nice little neat mound of epoxy I want it to be strong I didn't want it to be breaking off you know within 30 days after the person gets it who this will be given to nice and sturdy you know it's got a double base bought them at Hobby Lobby top and bottom just screw them together from the bottom up underneath I put four circular pads four legs that's all there is to it okay and there's the two screws that hold the top and bottom pieces of wood together nothing to it he's a cake on the back here's your tuner right here here are the back of the the two banana plugs and of course here's your on/off switch any switch would do and there's the 360 picofarad capacitor that runs that this switch controls that throws it in parallel with the tuner all right now up here these are all the nuts and everything that you know standard whole operation procedures I'll just you make sure you use lock washers with them you don't have to use brass I like use brass I'm kind of a brass nut for those of you who follow my videos you know that so that's about it you know now here here's the way that this thing works the two outside wires these two outside wires are running all the way around the frame are connected to the two banana plugs one end of the wire goes here and the other end of the wire goes there on the back it's soldered on solder on I used little short banana plugs by the way I found in a Radio Shack I like those they were smaller but I just soldered him one here and one there that was it these two wires go to the radio using alligator Gator wires you can you can or you can use banana plug wires and push them in the red one would go to the antenna connection the black one to the ground the other massive wiring that you see here comes down and is connected to the tuner okay there is no physical connection between the two outside wires here and the rest of the wires there's no connection it all works off of inductive coupling it's kind of interesting the way this thing works I was really fascinated by it all anyway I'd like to have a larger knob the knob I'm using is too small but unfortunately sealing what I have I'd like to have a nice big knob that covers up those two brass screws but anyway all the rest of the wires come down and again you just have two wires when you're all done to two ends and one hooks to the one side of the capacitor and the other one is soldered to the other side of the capacitor down here just like you would any pass any many variable capacitor and then of course the switch has the this a 360 peak very capacitor across it that throws it into parallel so that's it now lessons learned on this thing what should I have done differently you know since it was the first one I expected that there would be some things like when I get done today I thought I should have done differently by day by the way these are this is just plastic with plastic paint on the back I beveled the corners because I thought it would be better than something pointed I didn't like that pointed look if I had to do this over which I probably will in a later date I would have used thicker plastic here this is a little bit too flimsy for my blood you know long as they take it easy with it it'll be okay but I expect it to break eventually and they'll wind up bringing it back I should have used thicker but I couldn't find thicker so I used what they had for sale now up here is plenty strong no problem at all and lots of strength right there but down here it's just a little too flimsy yeah I don't like that I don't like that at all see it see it flexing that's and the wire well I use 22 gauge red coated enamel wire probably 24 gauge would have been better you got to be careful though your string it because with 24 it's pretty thin you can slice your finger anyway the wires I strung them as tightly as I could and when I got to the top here I wrapped it once around the the brass nail and then went down around to the next one to the next and brought it back up and when I got to the next top nail I wrapped it a second that on that one I only wrapped these nails here I probably should have wrapped either all of them or the top ones and the bottom ones okay one coil of wire around kept it nice and snug because the two outside wires I may have to tighten these up just a little bit more they're just just not tight and on the inside is real good nice and tight these two outside wires are a little bit too loose in my blood so I may have to wind up tightening them up just a little bit more alright that's it that's the construction of it the way it works this inside set of wires picks up the radio station you tuned it with this knob right here and then after it's tuned it is sent to these two outside wires that are connected to the radio and they're connected to the radio through gaiter wires from here okay so let's go in and see what that thing sounds like I'll show you how I'll give you a little demo here I know I went through that kind of quick so let me go ahead and go through a little bit slower for those that may want to go ahead and build one of these now remember you don't have to build this large is the one I built you can no one else smaller in size this doesn't have to be that big big long arms and all that stuff as I told you the two outside coils go to the radio one goes to the antenna and one goes to ground okay now all the rest of those coils they come over and they go to the variable capacitor like that here's the variable capacitor okay and from the variable capacitor I put another a switch and then another capacitor in parallel with that one so when I get down below 70 or 700 kilocycles I can close the switch and throw in this additional 360 pica Peres now you can use a 300 you can use probably 250 I just happen to have a 360 on hand so I threw that in there the variable capacitor by the way is 365 pica Thirds okay and this thing I use was 360 but you know a nice 300 would go good okay pico farads let's say this one has businesses for the birds there we go so that's what we have these two are not physically connected in any way ground an antenna on the radio connected to the to the variable capacitor with a another capacitor in parallel with it now these these here are the ones that go to that the red and the black you know banana plug things okay that's always - there's nothing to it now it's important that I give credit where credit is due I always try to do that if possible and a lot of my ideas that I used on this variable or tunable loop antenna came from Dave's rate Lupe's on the website on the Internet he has some really cool stuff here these are some of the these are some of the antennas he made but he has boxes at the bottom of these two and this one here he has a double base like mine is a little smaller coursing but he used round stock instead of square and that would be really hard to drill holes in as far as I'm concerned and I think he ran the wires right through the wood and right through the wood instead of wrapping them around brass nails however he did do brass nails here's another one of his creations right there that's a big sucker there but he did a good job he gave me a lot of good ideas I really appreciate it that's the kind of knob I'd like to get for the one I built I've got the antenna hooked to my Philco 630 B so let's go ahead and hook up the get it a bit closer here the red wire goes to the antenna on the chassis the black wire goes to ground on the chassis so now I've got it hooked up there the reason I'm using Gator wires is because the banana clips if I were to I mean if I were to use banana plugs and they push it in too hard they would snap that off there like I said that plastics awfully thin so for now we're going to have to use Gator wires but I'm certain they'll they'll break it and they'll bring it back and I'll go ahead and fix it alright let's go ahead and crank up the volume see you got our switch down let's see if we can tune in any station I've got the volume all the way up all the way up now we'll go ahead and tune this in ten and watch what happens just listen to the radio the mile Hankook Optimo 87 25th at all season friend of mine is it is that amazing or what did you see how well you know why I rest with an antenna up at a tree is beyond me of course that works for you now this does not work for shortwave it only works for broadcast band okay ring try to fly into a free tire inspection today what's this about their tire specials and see that no one delivers the holiday like the us amazing isn't it now look when you move these things you can't just like to them back and forth like you do a you know your radio dial you got a kind of feather feather feather feather fee you find your station then you go nice and easy real feather feather feather feather feather okay now let's go down below 70 let's go down in that area down there we'll go down around this area here now when you get down below 70 or 700 kilocycles really you have to throw in that additional capacitor so we'll flip the switch on we'll crank up the volume see if we can pick up a station not much going to be here today but there's a very weak station very weak alright let's go ahead and tune our antenna see what happens because tells the story of Christmas good how does that amazing part leap in the front of pond apparently go easy with it and celebrations and gift and book and dramas and pageant and that's amazing heard I'm stunned by that anyway that's how it works now by the way we're going to be being even if I go above ah the lower end of the scale if I don't know about 70 let's go to 70 turn up the volume all the way I have to flip the switch off okay but listen to it see how it decreases that's it I recommend everybody at least make one in her life I'm glad I did this will be given to the lady and her husband who received the out water can't 145 I think she'll like it and for if nothing else it'll be a great conversation piece in her house hope you liked it this is how they work and until next time I guess this is John and dress

Channel: joernone

Views: 43,366

Keywords: broadcast band tunable loop antenna, tunable loop antenna, loop antenna

Id: YgR0-_1Gimo

Length: 14min 43sec (883 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 17 2013