Lab 6 - Loop Antenna
Figure 1 - Antenna Circuit
Using the Matlab script for calculating inductance, we choose a suitable number of loops for our antenna, 14, that would work within the range of our trimming capacitors.
Building the antenna proved to be tricky, but work was made easy by using electrical tape to hold the wires in place while wrapping the box.
To find the correct value for the trimming capacitor, we used two known resistors and placed the second in parallel with the antenna circuit and capacitor. When the voltage across the second resistor was half the input, the capacitor was tuned.
In this experiment, our group designed, built, and tested a square loop antenna for our radio. Once the antenna was built, we tuned it using the trimming capacitor and received an AM signal through our radio.
Before constructing this in the lab, calculations were performed using Matlab. The calculated data was used to guide design parameters for the antenna.
The square loop antenna ended up delivering an AM signal to our radio and we were able to hear voices through our speaker.
Figure 2 - Completed Square Loop Antenna
When it came time to test our antenna, we did not have much luck until the end of lab. We were losing hope when we finally heard a voice crackle out of our speaker. We determined we did not hear 1230kHz, but were probably picking up 1520kHz.
Overall, this lab was fun as we got to build an antenna and finally see our radio receive a broadcasted signal.
Figure 3 - Completed Radio Circuit