Support and connection means for looped antenna conductors

Claim 1

Antenna of wire-like conductors, said conductors including a plurality of half loops connected to a balanced transmission line, each half loop being a section of conductor curved outward from a point of attachment on a central post to an apex removed from said post and then curved back to said post, said antenna including means of supporting said conductors in a feed region and connecting said conductors to said balanced transmission line, said means comprising: a non-conductive disk having two substantially flat surfaces that are separated from each other by the thickness of the disk, each of said substantially flat surfaces having a circular perimeter, one of said substantially flat surfaces having a raised edge perpendicular to it forming a perimeter flange, the other substantially flat surface of said disk being placed against said post such that said post extends along a diameter of said disk, said disk being fastened to said post by two notched clamping devices that include means for snap-connecting to said post, each clamping device having a notched portion that extends over a portion of said disk, said notched portion of each clamping device having a notch transverse to the length of said post, said perimeter flange of said disk being held in said transverse flange of each clamping device, said disk having two apertures through it, one on either side of said post, an end section of one of said half loops being bent and inserted end-first through one of said apertures of said disk into the throat of an alligator clip that is connected to the end of a lead of said balanced transmission line, an end section of another of said half loops being bent and inserted end-first through the other of said apertures of said disk into the throat of an alligator clip that is connected to the end of the other lead of said balanced transmission line.