W6LVP Magnetic loop receive antenna

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 Today I installed my receive only loop antenna properly on the roof, including an RCA rotor.  Nearly properly because at 18ft the loop doesn't quite have a clear line of site to the RF horizon as recommended by Larry, W6LVP who designed the antenna.   

The loop covers 160M to 10M with no tuning or adjustment. At my request Larry installed a 5-pole 1,700 kHz high-pass filter in the preamp to attenuate strong signals in my area.  He also wired the loops power inserter with an F-type connector on one side (loop), and BNC connector on the other (radio).   

I'm using 100ft of quad-shield RG-6 ($35 from Home Depot) from the shack to the loop.  Quad-shield RG6 is designed to protect signals from interference and has good common-mode rejection to protect your loop antenna signals.  For the rotator, I'm using an RCA VH226E from Amazon, controlled with 100ft of 18ga 3 thermostat wire from Home Depot ($0.36/ft). 

The setup works great, and receive is at least 1-2 S levels quieter on receive.  I chose the current location because it was easily (and safely) accessible from my ladder.  I had originally (optimistically) planned to install the loop atop a 6ft fiberglass mast, but I couldn't guy the rotator properly.  

For now I mounted the loop directly onto the rotator.  At some point I'll get a roofer to move the loop up to the roof peak.  

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