I built a portable Delta Loop for the 10 and 11 metre bands, designed for outdoor use, easy to tune in the field, and entirely homebrewed from common materials — the kind you probably already have in a drawer.

Geometry and materials

  • Shape: equilateral triangle
  • Sides: about 370 cm each
  • Wire: single-core copper house wiring, 0.75 mm²
  • Stub: RG59 coaxial cable, 185 cm long, connected to one side of the triangle
  • Feed point: on one side of the triangle, about 80 cm from the corner
  • Movable supports: cord-through clothes pegs, taken from travel clothesline cords, used as sliding markers to adjust the length of the active wire and the tuning
  • Fine adjustment: 3 pegs per triangle corner allow quick changes to the perimeter, and so to the resonant frequency

Performance

  • Initial resonant frequency: around 27.600 MHz
  • Tuning range: up to 29.000 MHz by moving the pegs
  • Measured impedance: stable around 50 Ohm across the useful range
  • SWR: easy to manage thanks to the movable tuning points

This antenna is perfect for homebrewing practice, portable operation, and for anyone who wants to move easily between CB (11m) and 10 metres in HF. I often mount it on a 6-metre telescopic fishing pole, exactly as I do on my activations.

Delta Loop Pinzetta 10-11m video Watch the video

Building and tuning it in the field, step by step

Gallery

Initial resonance on 11 metres
Initial resonance on 11 metres
Resonance on 10 metres
Resonance on 10 metres
Resonance on 10 metres, second test
Resonance on 10 metres
Resonance on 10 metres, third test
Resonance on 10 metres
Delta Loop Pinzetta set up in the field
Delta Loop “Pinzetta” in the field
Close-up of the adjustment pegs
Close-up of the adjustment pegs
Delta Loop mounted on a fishing pole
Mounted on a telescopic fishing pole
Antenna feed point
Feed point
RG59 stub connected to the triangle
RG59 stub
Delta Loop Pinzetta overall view
Overall view
Delta Loop Pinzetta, triangle detail
Triangle detail