Ahoy Phil:
What Wes N5WA described is mostly what I have on my 160M inverted "L". Do
what u can do and have confidence.
Here is my confiquration:
-my maximum vertical height is 37 feet because that is the tallest longleaf
pine tree I have on my 46 acres and I don't have a tower lightning rod.
-I use ten 140 foot radials laying on the ground (scrapwire, a twisted pair
of 26 gauge telephone framewire soldered in parallel).
-The radiator length is 1/4 wavelength of #10 stranded, plastic covered,
wire and I feed directly with 250 ft of 50 ohm RG-213 coax with no matching
network at the feed point. SWR attained at 1830 kHz is 1.1:1. SWR is low
thru 1925 kHz without a tuner but I use a Ten-Tec 235 or a Dentron MT-3000A
anyways.
-the ground conductivity here in my West Central Florida locale, on the sand
dune of dry sugarsand, is poor, poor, poor. I am at 135 ft ASL in desert
conditions; cactus, yucca, sandpine trees, flag paw-paw, and false rosemary
bushes. I use (only) a 5 ft earth ground rod to secure the radials and
tension stretch the vertical wire segment to the feed point.
U can surmise that almost anything in the inverted "L" configuration works.
It doesn't have to be perfect, elaborate, pretty, or sophisticated. It is
much better than the manufactured verticals alleged to work wonderfully on
the 160M band, or a relatively low inv "V" or dipole (below 60 or so ft).
U'll find that this 160M inv "L" performs pretty gud on 80M and the other
bands too. For receive, I have one 600 ft terminated Beverage towards
Europe. I shall erect another towards JA for this season.
My 100 watt contest scores in the Stew Perry challenge, ARRL & CQ 160M Morse
contests are right decent in my mind. The contest stations in
Hawaii/Pacific are generally easy to work on 5 or 6 calls. JAs, some
Europeans, and East Asians are harder.
Keep the 160M Morse faith. Gud Luk.
73, Pete K4LDR Citrus County, FL
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