As a complement to the Hex Beam as one Field Day antenna I decided on a 40 meter full wave loop as the second antenna. I can get it nearly 30 feet high with three 31 foot Jackite poles. The feet point is supported by fiberglass mast sections off a hitch mount on the truck. One motivation is that it is fairly compact as a diamond shape. It is about 36 feet on a side. That should fit the area available at our Field Day site. I considered feeding it with balanced line but decided to use a 4 to 1 balun at the top of the mast. With this choice I did not get a 1 to 1 SWR but it has a good dip at 40 and the harmonics 20, 15 and 10 meters. For most of it, I could go without a tuner. The rest is easy range of the KX3 internal tuner. I cut it long of course and it was low in frequency. After three trims and much sweat it is just where I want it. The whole thing did fit in my front yard. I had one support at 20 instead of 31 feet because it was getting close to the power line drop for the house. I found the trimming for SWR very sane and was better than my experience with a 40 meter off center fed dipole I used last year.
They say it is NVIS on 40 and I can think of no better plan for Field Day. I hope to have both the hex beam and the loop on a coax switch. I did not try any QSOs as I needed to head out to lunch. I hope everyone can get a taste of Field Day this year. It is June 22/23.
