[SCCC] 160M ARRL DX from Colorado, W7RF

[Radiodan-W7RF]

Hi Guys,
 
I stay subscribed to the SCCC list so I see what my old friends are up to in
the contests and thought I might share some thoughts and results from my new
QTH in Colorado.
 
When I lived in West LA on a 55 x 110 foot lot, contesting was tough on the
low bands and city noise was terrible on 160M and 80M. Now that I'm out in
Fort Collins and have some land, I can spread out and enjoy planting
antennas. What could I put up in West LA? I tried everything that would fit.
Loaded Inverted vee at 70', half sloper, loaded vertical with a few radials,
shunt fed 70 foot top loaded tower (no room for anything longer than 30 foot
radials). RX noise was bad and I doubt my TX signal was making me much of an
alligator!
 
Now, in Colorado my antennas are only limited to my imagination. I have a
1050 foot horizontal loop held up with four 70 foot utility poles spaced
about 280 feet apart and fed with 200 feet of 450 ohm ladder line. This
works extremely well on 80-40-30M and well on extremely well on 160M for USA
and fair to good for 160M DX. It is quiet to receive with on all bands.
I just put up a 64 foot tubing vertical (1.75" diameter for most of it) and
a 101 foot horizontal wire (that length a suggestion from WB2WIK for easy
match at shack end of LMR400) sitting on a bed of 40 radials that are 90
feet long each, more to be added up to about 60 total. Feedpoint impedance
was 39 ohms for the vertical only on 3.625 before I added the horizontal
wire, so I know the radial field is pretty good. Receiving was with a K9AY
loop system and the big loop as well as mostly on the inverted "L" itself.
It's just so quiet out here. Still, there were stations calling I just could
not pull out. Time to add beverages! In this contest I used the inverted "L"
for TX
All antennas are hundreds of feet away from other structures.
 
Everyone I saw results for said USA condx were very good this year and DX
propagation was at least good. I can't compare that to anything but did find
that USE/VE condx were excellent at my place as was hearing (and working) EU
DX. High points were being called by EU and other DX while running and being
spotted on the cluster by DX stations I didn't even hear or work (not sure
if they just spotted or called me too).
 
It's not so much the 800 miles farther East from my old WLA QTH, but being
able to actually install antennas that work and receive noise was very low
here, even for 160M. We also had no storms and no wind to make any
additional noise.
 
What I especially notice is the ability to hear and work many modestly
equipped low power East coast stations. Almost all USA stations were
readable to extremely loud! Before, when in WLA I could only hear a few very
loud East coasters.
 
I worked all 79 USA/VE sections what were on the air (NT was not on),
although I started to sweat as the contest went on and I still needed NNY,
NLI and PR. Finally found a coup,e of NNY and NLI to complete 2 land and got
a call from NP4A with a nice signal as I was running to finish PR. I ended
up with 997 Q's and 98 sections/DX for a score of 202,174
 
It seems that TN and MN had the most stations on 160M of any US state! Is
every ham there equipped with a 160M antenna?
 
I had a great time!
 
C U in Visalia
73, Dan W7RF 
President NCARC 2009 W0UPS
Rocky Mountain DX Club W0PA
Mile High DX Association K0AB

Regards, Dan Magro W7RF
Multiple power ranges from ONE Bird element, ask me how!
HENRY, BIRD, TOHTSU, SAMLEX, RFI chokes
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