Anyone who has constructed any of the numerous transmitter circuits on the web will have found most

of them to be unstable. The reason they lack crystal control. Wide deviation FM (as employed on the FM broadcast band) is not amenable to crystal control - the frequency deviation is too great and a crystal oscillator simply cannot be made to deviate that far. The answer a phase locked loop is complex and too big an undertaking for most hobbyists. The stability of these circuits is made worse by the usual choice of antenna a piece of dangling wire. But even a rigid whip antenna doesnt improve matters very much. The simple presence of an antenna causes the immediate RF environment to become part of the oscillator circuit with the consequence that any change in that environment results in a change in load and a shift in transmit frequency. We present here the loop antenna - something of an outsider until quite recently when it found application in the large number of MP3 transmitters on the market. The loop is fairly unique amongst the antenna types in that it doesnt depend on a ground ballast. The circulating currents in the loop radiate RF energy, most of which destructively interferes for a loop of a practical size, but radiate it does nonetheless. The loop's independence of a ground or counterpoise brings a very considerable stability dividend - it is almost independent of the RF environment. As a result, surrounding objects (including you) are no longer part of the radiating process. This yields a transmitter that doesn't shift transmit frequency if you come near it or pick it up! You can even touch the 'cold' side of the loop without significant frequency shift! To be effective, a loop antenna needs to be resonant. But if the loop is substituted in place of the transmitter's usual tank inductor, then resonance is assured regardless of the actual transmit frequency. The result is a very compact transmitter that is stable AND has useful range. Something of a dream come true really!

Radio microphone using loop antenna The core transmitter components (those inside the dotted box) are mounted on a sub-board. This is for no other purpose than to move the critical transmitter components out to a middepth position in the case. Note too how the hot end of the loop (that connected to the second transistor collector) is more central than the cold end (that connected to the supply). These two stratagems serve to put distance between these key components and the users

hand. Plastic pillars and tie wraps serve to secure the loop to the main board, thereby preventing movement of the loop in the event that the radio microphone is dropped.