Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

If you ever find yourself with an antenna that's done fairly well, you're always a bit reluctant to pull it down, even if it's not the most sophisticated pile-up busting wire ever.

So it was just before Christmas with me.  I had my new copper tube creation, which was doing rather well on 10m, and which could be pressed into service on a couple of other bands at a push.

But the long wire, connected directly to the ATU and fed against earth, was simply too RF-hot in the shack, and far too wild to tune in a hurry.

You can see the delta - just - at sunset.  The next antenna can also be seen, but more about that later...

So down the wire came.  All 25-odd metres of it.  It was due to rain later in the day, so I decided I'd make a delta loop out of the old wire.  I took the measurements off some other person's web site, and attached the loop at its lower corner to a G-Whip 4:1 balun, perhaps the most robust and professionally-made baluns you'll ever find.  I tied it to a lashing wire on the chimney already, and connected the short length of coax.

The result?  Amazing!  Now DX was much, much easier, and I could even get into some pretty lively pile-ups, not that I particularly like those kinds of events - much too undisciplined for me.  Remember, this was with a triangular loop of wire and a 4:1 balun, with the apex at no more than about 7m, and no more than 100W output.  You also get much quieter reception than a dipole as a much-appreciated added bonus.

And, very importantly for this QTH, the delta is effectively immune to the effects of the regular 120km/h winds we experience.  It rarely gets into anything more than a gentle, low amplitude sway.

Soon, I was talking across the US, into the Caribbean, most of Latin America, even into New Zealand and Japan on long path.  Without doubt, this was the most unacknowledged, cheap,  top-performing DX antenna you could hope for, especially without the need for ridiculous mounting heights.

What's more, with a bit of help from the trusty ATU,  the loop can easily operate on 10m - as a solid 59 into Mauritius proved.  It will also try and work on 17 and 12, although with somewhat reduced performance.  The important bit is that, at a push, you can switch to most bands with this loop and make a contact - it's better than just sitting there, listening and unable to at least try and make a contact.

If you think deltas are just simple wire loops and of little better gain than a dipole, well, technically, you'd be right.  But if you think they are of no use, you'd be very wrong.  True, I'm helped to the tune of many dB - anything between 6 and 12dB - by the nature of the surrounding landscape.  But deltas perform very well in most situations and, being very slight (you can use very thin wire with deltas if you wish), very neighbour-invisible.

So go try a delta today!