Sometimes a summit offers little space to deploy an antenna. Either because there isn’t much room or because there are many people at the top – or both.
Then an antenna with a small footprint is required.
wire antenna
5 to 28 MHz Random wire antenna – 12.8m (42 ft)
Some time ago I had an S2S-QSO with N1ZF. In the following e-mail contact we exchanged information and photos about the antennas used for this QSO. This is when I became aware of the „Random Wire Antenna“ Paul had successfully used.
Delta Loop for the 40 metre band
A delta loop antenna – especially for the 40 metre band – is not exactly suitable for SOTA. It is huge and requires a lot of space. Furthermore the set up is time-consuming.
Nevertheless I’d like to show this design here because:
- During sunspot minimum 40 m still offers the opportunity to work a lot of DX.
- The delta loop provides the required take off angle to work the DX.
- Sometimes space (and time) don’t matter.
- It’s fun building it 😉
A possible application could be intercontinental S2S events.

Here is the Link to the 20 metre version of the delta loop.
During our DX-pedition (Link) to the Principality of Liechtenstein in Sept. 2013. DL4AAE worked hundreds of JA’s on 20 metres with this antenna and 100 W output power.