Greetings Brad
Congrats on the country total - nice going.
You just can't have too many RX antennas on 160 - Beverages, Low
Dipoles, Loops, BOGs each are supreme at certain times - one well known
VE station has been known to have 20 different RX antennas!
First off I recommend you buy a copy of "DXing on the Edge: The thrill
of 160 Meters" by Jeff K1ZM / VY2ZM.
Apart from being a great read about the history of Topband and the
many luminaries that have appeared down the years it contains some
useful technical hints on various types of receive antennas, and
including:-
a) A low flat-top dipole mounted about 4-6 feet above ground - Jeff
states that the ends can be bent around the property perimeter so your
220 feet limit may be OK.
b) Jeff describes the construction of a very simple loop - this
comprises basically 20 ft of 50/75 ohm coax and a tuning capacitor
covering 200-1000 pF. He enthuses about this and he is right to do so
- only 3 days ago my great friend and neighbour Andy GM0UDL built one
and it receives signals that cannot be heard on his dipole at 70ft.
Only 2 hours ago we were listening to NL7Z and K9FD/KH6 on 160m - each
was totally Q5 on the loop and unreadable on the dipole - that is
impressive DX from these parts (especially KH6 - one well known G3 DXer
with 250+ DXCC on TB had to wait 46 years for his first KH6 QSO!).
So, try contacting ARRL for the book - it sure as hell beats reading
about the credit crunch.
Good luck.
73 de Cris
GM4FAM
Tiscali House and Garden, Food and Drink and Dating tips and services -
http://www.tiscali.co.uk/lifestyle/
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