On Thu, 19 Mar 2015 16:31:43 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
Ian Jackson wrote:
That name never happened in the UK - or if it did, I never heard of
it. It doesn't make much sense either - it can't be a loop and a
stick.

On the contrary, it IS fairly logical. It a loop (or, more accurately,
lots of loops) of wire, wound on a ferrite stick.

Called a coil. A loop is singular.

That's just a matter of semantic pedantry. The 'Loop' part of the
name is simply a reference to a type of antenna where the wire antenna
is wound into the shape of a loop which can be a single loop or made
from several loops wound, in the pre-ferrite rod days of long and
medium wave reception on a large and bulky,typically wooden,
non-conducting support frame.

The early portable valve radios hid the loop antenna inside the
relatively still bulky case of the set and it was only with the advent
of transistorised and much smaller portable LW & MW radios that the
use of a long ferrite core (the stick of ferrite) to create a compact
loop antenna became standard practice. The yanks decided to refer to
such ferrite loaded loop antennas as 'loopsticks' whilst the brits
decided to use the name 'ferrite rod'.

Possibly the derivation from 'loop antenna' in the yank case, may
simply have been due to the much greater prevalence of 'Portable
Vacuum Tubed Radios' in use by our colonial cousins in the early
fifties where a greater familiarity with the term 'loop antenna' would
lead to naming the 'modern marvel' of a ferrite rod loaded compact
form used in the early transistorised portable radios as a 'Loopstick'
antenna.

A term that sounds very much like one conjured up by the marketing
departments of the radio manufacturing companies looking for a
'modern' and 'snappy' name which still retained its link to the good
old fashioned loop antennas of yesteryear as used by the bulkier
valved predecessors.

Meanwhile, back in blighty, most radio ownership was limited to large
non-portable valve radio sets, often connected to an end fed wire
antenna making the reference to a a 'Loop Antenna' a rather unfamiliar
one amongst the general radio set owning public.

Only a very tiny fraction of the impoverished UK public would have
been able to afford a portable valved radio with its built in loop
antenna back in the fifties so when it came to marketing the modern
miracles of portable transistor radios that started to flood the
market in the early sixties, the way was clear to invent a more
accurate name free from any earlier loop antenna reference to describe
the innovative feature that largely rendered the need for an external
wire antenna redundent.

In this case, since the 'stick of ferrite' normally resembled a
'Rod', it was a 'no-brainer' to simply call it a "Ferrite Rod
(antenna)", especially since its more technical sounding name had a
much greater appeal amongst the brits than it would have had with the
yanks who, in their childlike way, would regard 'loopstick' as a more
'fuzzy' and friendly name for a compact version of a feature they were
already familiar with.


Ferrite rod says what it is. What 'hobbyists' or other such ridiculous US
inventions decide to call such things isn't of much concern in the UK.

In one sense, you're quite right. It doesn't bother me in the
slightest that the yanks use 'loopstick' for a ferrite rod aerial.
I've been familiar with this americanism for at least the last 40
years or so and it troubles me no more than the fact that the spanish
word for red is rojo (or roja for the feminine form). :-)
--
J B Good