Small Magnetic Loop Antenna Calculator

by Steve Yates
AA5TB
aa5tb@yahoo.com
Updated September 21, 2005

Input the following parameters:

Design Frequency = 3.630 MHz

Loop Diameter = 6.000 feet 1.829 m
Conductor Diameter = 6.000 inches 152.400 mm
Added Loss Resistance = 0.000 milliohms
RF Power = 100.000 Watts

Calculated Results:

Bandwidth = 1.156 kHz (-3 dB points)

Efficiency = 44.040 % -3.562 dB
Loop Area = 28.274 ft² 2.627 m²
Radiation Resistance = 4.692 mΩ
Total Loss Resistance = 5.962 mΩ
Loop Circumference = 18.850 ft 5.745 m²
Wavelength Percentage = 6.957 % λ
Loop Inductance = 2.933 μH
Distributed Capacitance = 15.457 pF
Q (Quality Factor) = 3139.736
Tuning Capacitor = 655.402 pF
Capacitor Voltage = 4582.997 V
Minimum Plate Spacing = 61.107 mils (1/1000 in) 1.552 mm

Notes:
1. To truly be considered a small loop, the Loop Circumference should be less
then 10 % λ. Larger loops will have greater efficiency but smaller nulls.
2. To see the effects of bad joints, etc., input realistic values into the Added
Loss Resistance box.
 Loop Performance
0 400
-1 380
-2 360
-3 340
-4 320
-5 300
-6 280
-7 260
Efficiency (dB)

-8 240
-9 220
dB
-10 200
kHz
-11 180
-12 160
-13 140
-14 120
-15 100
-16 80
-17 60
-18 40
-19 20
-20 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Frequency (1-30 MHz)
 Small Loop Equations for a Copper Loop
(circular loop assumed, results may vary with other shapes)

Radiation Resistance, Ohms: R R = (3.38×10↑-8)(f²A)²

Loss Resistance, Ohms: R L = (9.96×10↑-4)(√f)(S/d)
Efficiency: η = RR/(RR+RL)
Inductance, Henrys: L = (1.9×10↑-8)S[7.353log10(96S/πd)-6.386]
Inductive Reactance, Ohms: XL = 2πf(L×10↑6)
Tuning Capacitor, Farads: CT = 1/2πf(L×↑6)
Quality Factor: Q = (f×10↑6)/Δf = XL/2(RR + RL)
Bandwidth, Hertz: Δf = (f×10↑6)/Q = [(f1-f2)×10↑6]
Distributed Capacity: pF: CD = 0.82S
Capacitor Potential, Volts: VC = √(PXLQ)
Capacitor Voltage Rating: 75,000V/in

where
f = operating frequency, MHz
A = area of loop, square feet
S = conductor length, feet
d = conductor diameter, inches
η = decimal value; dB = 10 log10η
P = transmitter power, Watts

Ref. The American Radio Relay League, The ARRL Antenna Handbook,
Small High Efficiency Loop Antennas for Transmitting,
Publication No. 15, p. 5-14, Table 4, 1988
Givens:
π = 3.14159265359
Loop Diameter D= 72.0000000 inches 1.8288000 m
Conductor Diameter d= 6.0000000 inches 0.1524000 m
Added Loss Resistance RL= 0.0000000 mΩ 0.0000000 Ω
RF Power P= 100.0000000 Watts
Frequency F= 3.6300000 MHz 3630000 Hz
96.0000000
Calculations:
Loop Circumference S= 18.8495559 ft 5.7453446 m
Loop Area A= 28.2743339 ft² 2.6267716 m²
Radiation Resistance RR= 0.0046917 Ω 4.6916755 mΩ
Loss Resistance RL= 0.0059616 Ω 5.9615958 mΩ
Total Loss Resistance RT= 0.0059616 Ω 5.9615958 mΩ
Efficiency η= 0.4403976 44.0397637 %
Inductance L= 0.0000029 H 2.9330506 μH
Inductive Reactance XL= 66.8969086 Ω
Tuning Capacitor CT= 0.0000000 F 655.4015403 ρF
Quality Factor Q= 3139.7355398
Bandwidth ΔF= 1156.1483297 Hz 1.1561483 kHz
Distributed Capacity CD= 15.4566359 ρF
Capacitor Potential VC= 4582.9968518 V
Minimum Plate Spacing PS= 0.0611066 in 61.1066247 mils
Wavelength λ= 270.9558866 ft 82.5876033 m
Circumference % λ= 6.9566671 %

Radiation Loss Total Loss

Frequency Resistance Resistance Resistance Efficiency
F RR RL RT η
MHz mΩ mΩ mΩ dB
1 0.0270210 3.1290263 3.1290263 -20.6744204
2 0.4323360 4.4251114 4.4251114 -10.5058666
3 2.1887012 5.4196325 5.4196325 -5.4110307
4 6.9173767 6.2580526 6.2580526 -2.7982335
5 16.8881268 6.9967155 6.9967155 -1.5054090
6 35.0192198 7.6645178 7.6645178 -0.8595598
7 64.8774280 8.2786254 8.2786254 -0.5215664
8 110.6780280 8.8502228 8.8502228 -0.3340915
9 177.2848002 9.3870788 9.3870788 -0.2240740
10 270.2100293 9.8948499 9.8948499 -0.1561921
11 395.6145039 10.3778061 10.3778061 -0.1124560
12 560.3075167 10.8392650 10.8392650 -0.0832129
13 771.7468647 11.2818647 11.2818647 -0.0630282
14 1038.0388485 11.7077443 11.7077443 -0.0487087
15 1367.9382733 12.1186667 12.1186667 -0.0383050
16 1770.8484480 12.5161051 12.5161051 -0.0305874
17 2256.8211857 12.9013059 12.9013059 -0.0247561
18 2836.5568035 13.2753342 13.2753342 -0.0202779
19 3521.4041227 13.6391094 13.6391094 -0.0167886
20 4323.3604687 13.9934309 13.9934309 -0.0140341
21 5255.0716707 14.3389998 14.3389998 -0.0118340
22 6329.8320622 14.6764342 14.6764342 -0.0100580
23 7561.5844807 15.0062829 15.0062829 -0.0086102
24 8964.9202679 15.3290356 15.3290356 -0.0074196
25 10555.0792693 15.6451314 15.6451314 -0.0064325
26 12347.9498346 15.9549661 15.9549661 -0.0056080
27 14360.0688178 16.2588975 16.2588975 -0.0049144
28 16608.6215765 16.5572508 16.5572508 -0.0043274
29 19111.4419728 16.8503222 16.8503222 -0.0038274
30 21887.0123727 17.1383828 17.1383828 -0.0033994
 -3.5615502 dB

1.5521083 mm

Inductive Tuning Quality Capacitor Minimum

Reactance Capacitor Factor Bandwidth Potential Spacing
XL CT Q ΔF VC PS
Ω ρF kHz V mils
18.4289004 8636.1605570 2919.6172888 0.3425106 2319.5977311 30.9279697
36.8578009 2159.0401392 3793.9474627 0.5271554 3739.4726919 49.8596359
55.2867013 959.5733952 3633.2989080 0.8256959 4481.8870082 59.7584934
73.7156018 539.7600348 2797.4648869 1.4298660 4541.1100795 60.5481344
92.1445022 345.4464223 1928.9326057 2.5921072 4215.9285423 56.2123806
110.5734026 239.8933488 1295.2638277 4.6322609 3784.4646748 50.4595290
129.0023031 176.2481746 881.6926081 7.9392749 3372.5417278 44.9672230
147.4312035 134.9400087 616.7211622 12.9718266 3015.3597329 40.2047964
165.8601040 106.6192661 444.2557304 20.2586019 2714.4852483 36.1931366
184.2890044 86.3616056 328.9642882 30.3984364 2462.2043204 32.8293909
202.7179048 71.3732277 249.6573209 44.0603943 2249.6668424 29.9955579
221.1468053 59.9733372 193.5989244 61.9838154 2069.1491886 27.5886558
239.5757057 51.1015418 152.9801505 84.9783450 1914.4275259 25.5257003
258.0046062 44.0620437 122.8889943 113.9239529 1780.6158087 23.7415441
276.4335066 38.3829358 100.1529352 149.7709475 1663.8998491 22.1853313
294.8624070 33.7350022 82.6702557 193.5399845 1561.2927519 20.8172367
313.2913075 29.8829085 69.0153331 246.3220743 1470.4388439 19.6058513
331.7202079 26.6548165 58.1999556 309.2785863 1389.4639752 18.5261863
350.1491084 23.9228824 49.5254351 383.6412534 1316.8632026 17.5581760
368.5780088 21.5904014 42.4888097 470.7121745 1251.4168319 16.6855578
387.0069092 19.5831305 36.7220296 571.8638166 1192.1274755 15.8950330
405.4358097 17.8433069 31.9517115 688.5390170 1138.1725707 15.1756343
423.8647101 16.3254453 27.9719945 822.2509843 1088.8682810 14.5182437
442.2936106 14.9933343 24.6259093 974.5833000 1043.6418140 13.9152242
460.7225110 13.8178569 21.7923812 1147.1899189 1002.0100089 13.3601335
479.1514115 12.7753854 19.3770261 1341.7951701 963.5626287 12.8475017
497.5803119 11.8465851 17.3055429 1560.1937578 927.9492136 12.3726562
516.0092123 11.0155109 15.5189071 1804.2507616 894.8686519 11.9315820
534.4381128 10.2689186 13.9698334 2075.9016369 864.0608423 11.5208112
552.8670132 9.5957340 12.6201426 2377.1522155 835.2999796 11.1373331
Wavelength Circumference
λ %λ
m
299.7930000 1.9164372
149.8965000 3.8328744
99.9310000 5.7493117
74.9482500 7.6657489
59.9586000 9.5821861
49.9655000 11.4986233
42.8275714 13.4150606
37.4741250 15.3314978
33.3103333 17.2479350
29.9793000 19.1643722
27.2539091 21.0808095
24.9827500 22.9972467
23.0610000 24.9136839
21.4137857 26.8301211
19.9862000 28.7465583
18.7370625 30.6629956
17.6348824 32.5794328
16.6551667 34.4958700
15.7785789 36.4123072
14.9896500 38.3287445
14.2758571 40.2451817
13.6269545 42.1616189
13.0344783 44.0780561
12.4913750 45.9944934
11.9917200 47.9109306
11.5305000 49.8273678
11.1034444 51.7438050
10.7068929 53.6602423
10.3376897 55.5766795
9.9931000 57.4931167