The preliminary design of the beam loss monitor for the ANL Advanced Photon Source is based on the use of an air dielectric coaxial cable as a long ionization chamber. Each coacial cable section uses a high sensitivity DC current‐to‐voltage converter with both linear and integrating ranges. Pulse timing circuits determine the positions of individual losses by measuring the time at which the resulting voltage pulses arrive at the beginning of the coaxial ionization chamber. A possible timing ambiguity can be removed by correlating the particle bunch timing with the resulting voltage pulse timing. Measurements have shown that pulse rise times less than 15 nanoseconds can be obtained, so that determining loss locations to better than 7 feet may be possible. Best performance may be obtained when 500 VDC is applied to a 50‐ohm, 7/8‐inch air dielectric coaxial cable filled with approximately 8 psig of a 95% argon, 5% carbon dioxide gas mixture. Cable lengths will be between 100 and 300 feet long, depending on the part of the accelerator being monitored.