Loop Antenna Update

In the spring of 2026, I decided it was time to do some major maintenance on my 160m full wave Skyloop. It had been in the air since 2017, and the wire jacket was getting cracks and letting water in. Additionally, the two corners on the west side were supported by Black Walnut trees. These trees are messy - they drop walnuts which require a lot of work to pick up, and the XYL said get rid of them. Here is a pic of the original wire path for the loop. The red line is the antenna wire, the yellow lines on the corners are Mastrant 5/16 inch rope, and the black line is the feed line. The original antenna was made by Buxcomm and they are no longer in business as far as I can tell.

So on March 31st of 2026 the antenna came down, and then the walnut trees. JR (JR's Tree Service) came out to take down the trees for me. He has an awesome piece of equipment called an Arborist which has a 72 foot high reach capability. Here is a picture of the equipment set up with all of the legs down and leveled. In the picture JR has just begun to take down the first main branch. The antenna was actually supported by a Mastrant 5/16" rope over the tallest main "Y" you can see. 

Once the trees were down, the next dilemma was finding a new corner support. Fortunately, I was able to locate a used 52 foot long Utility Pole. JR to the rescue. He brought over his boom truck and a skid steer to dig the hole. Here is a pic of the pole right after we got the hole dug, the post set into the hole and the dirt tamped back in around it. (Yes, we used dirt, not concrete. There are thousands of poles just like this lining virtually every 2 lane highway and blacktop road set the exact same way here in Southern Ohio. So that should be convincing enough that packed dirt is adequate. And the hole was 8 feet deep.)

And finally a few days later, I was able to erect a brand new 14 AWG Flex Weave Antenna. It is roughly level with the top of this pole (44 feet), and about 560ish feet long. I took it down a few times while trimming to get the SWR down to the lowest I could get on 160 meters, and did not record the final length. It is fed with 450 ladder line into the shack, where it terminates into a 9:1 BALUN. Here is a picture of the finished antenna path.

I have already added a handful of new countries with it and it seems to be performing as expected.