[RTTY] Lack of RTTY on 40 and 80 Meters

[Kok Chen]

On Mar 25, 2014, at 9:45 AM, Tom Osborne wrote:

> I'd have to disagree on that one.  If someone wants to get an antenna for 160, they can do it.  I have seen designs for 160 antennas that are only 33 feet tall. 

This story is not about RTTY, but CW:

Up until the 2007 N8S Swains Island DXpedition, I have never in my life worked 160m.

However, I heard them on 160 with really good SNR.    So, I though... reciprocity theory :-).

I have no 160m antenna.  The closest is a HF-2V with elevated radials for 40m and 80m (fitting the description of Tom's "33 foot vertical" but without a loading coil to match it for 160m).

When I tried it, I could not tune it with either the FT-1000MP's internal antenna tuner, or a Ten-Tec 238 manual tuner.  But, with the two of them in tandem, I managed to get the Yaesu's PA to see an SWR of less than 3.0:1.  

After a few diditdahdahdidit from N8S, they finally got my callsign correctly.  I have never dared tried the same stunt after that, so the N8S QSO remains my one and only 160m QSO.

I am guessing that I was probably only getting a couple of percent efficiency, so the other 90+ watts has to be heating something up :-).

If DX can be worked with such a set up, a properly built capacitance loaded 33 foot tall antenna (with a decent counterpoise) will probably do OK.

73
Chen, W7AY