Feasibility study – loop in ground for rx only on low HF laid out an initial design concept. This article sets out expected signal / noise degradation in a typical installation.
3.5MHz
Let’s take ambient noise as Rural precinct in ITU-P.372-14.
An NEC-5.0 model of the 3m a side LiG gives average gain -37.18dBi. An allowance of 2.7dB of feed loss covers actual feed line loss and mismatch loss.
Above, calculated SND is 0.9dB. For this scenario (ambient noise and antenna system), the receiver S/N is 0.6dB worse than the off-air or intrinsic S/N ration. For Residential precinct ambient noise, SND is less at 0.3dB.
0.5-10MHz
The above graph shows the system behavior over 0.5-10MHz, it is a combination of the effects of noise distribution; antenna gain; mismatch; transformer and feedline losses; and receiver internal noise.