The Radiation Resistance of circular loop antenna diameter less than
0.1 wavelength
is given by the formula
Rrad = 19246 * (D / L)**4
where
Rrad = Radiation Resistance in Ohms
D = Diameter of Loop
L = Wavelength (in same units as D, Diameter)
** = Exponentiation (to the
power of, or ^ in Basic)
** From Formula 41, Page 814,
Section 11, Radio Engineer's Handbook, Copyright McGraw-Hill 1943, New
York and London
For the MFJ Enterprises Circular Loop 1 meter (approx) in diameter,
this becomes
Rrad = 0.0075 ohms on 40 meters
Rrad = 0.38 ohms on 15 meters
If you know the circulating current I in the loop, the power
radiated Prad
is given by
Prad = (I*I)*Rrad
where
Prad = Power Radiated in
Watts
I = Loop circulating current in Amperes
Rrad = As given by the
first equation
If you know the loss resistance of the loop, Rloss
which should be pretty low in the
MFJ Enterprises Circular Loop of Aluminum Pipe, then the efficiency E
is about
E% = (Rrad / Rloss)
* 100%
where
E% = Radiation Efficiency of Loop in % (Per Cent)
Rrad = Radiation Resistance in
Ohms
from First Formula
Rloss= Loss (of
order of DC)
resistance of Loop in Ohms
I don't own an MFJ-1788 Loop 40-15 meters myself (may get one) so I
can't figure
Rloss You can yourself find out more
information on the MFJ-1788 loop by clicking
http://www.mfjenterprises.com/Product.php?productid=MFJ-1788
and contact MFJ directly, to get a "ticket number" and E-mail answer,
or download
http://www.mfjenterprises.com/man/pdf/MFJ-1786.pdf
to get an "Adobe Acrobat" readable manual for the MFJ-1786 and
MFJ-1788 antennas.
My "guesstimate" is that the Radiation Efficiency on 40 meters would be
about 50%
and would rapidly approach 100% on 20 meters and 15 meters. Excellent
stealth aerial
which works very nicely indoors within wood frame buildings. Magnetic,
so there is
very little QRN, as most QRN is electrostatic in origin, also won't
bother the neighbours
much transmitting, because most interference (to unshielded amplified
speaker leads, etc.)
is only detected electrostatically, not magnetically. The Magnetic
field effectively
"becomes" a radio wave at a distance of 1 Radian, or approximately 1/3
of a Wavelength
so the fields generated by this antenna do not have much electrostatic
component until
this distance of 1/3 of a Wavelength is reached. On 40 meters this is
roughly 40 feet.