ARRL 160-Meter Contest
Call: NS0R
Operator(s): NS0R
Station: NS0R
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: KS
Operating Time (hrs): 4
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 231 Sections = 52 Countries = 1 Total Score = 24,180
Club:
Comments:
I have almost zero experience with 160. I live on a city lot and my antenna
farm competes for space with the kids swing set and playhouse in the backyard.
I decided that I wanted to operate the 160 contests this winter so two weeks ago
I wound 265 feet of 14 gauge THHN wire around 24 feet of PVC pipe. I got this
design idea from K6MM. I topped the vertical with a 3 foot capacity hat made
with solid 14 gauge copper wire and 1/8 inch brass rods soldered together.
This gave me about 20 khz of bandwidth at about 2:1 swr. I made a loading coil
with about 14 or so turns of solid #14 wire around a 1.5 inch PVC pipe and
connected it between the antenna element and ground at the bottom. That gave
me about 40 khz below 2:1 with the lowest at about 1.2:1. For radials I used my
existing radial field for my 40 meter vertical and 80 meter inverted L. This is
70 or so radials ranging from about 25-60 feet long. I also stripped out some
old cat 6 cable that I hadn't thrown away yet and added another 20 radials
around the base about 20 feet long. Overall, the antenna looks so ugly that I
have a hard time admitting that I made it. However, it was cheap and it worked
well enough to get me on 160 in a city lot. I had some family conflicts so I
was only able to play for about 4 hours, but I was very surprised at how well
the antenna worked. With 500 watts I was able to hold a run frequency without
too much trouble. For a receive antenna I threw 140 feet of #14 wire on the
ground and used the MFJ-1026 noise canceling box. I was very surprised at how
well this thing works. Once you figure out how to use it, it is worth many
times its weight in gold.
I had a great time this year. Next year I will probably move the antenna and
try the 160 Meter FCP I keep reading about. I just happen to already have the
correct toroids left over from another project.
Thanks for the Q's.
73, Morgan, NS0R
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