[SCCC] Some fun on 160, with an 80 meter dipole!

[Jim Price]

Gang - I recently replaced a burned up balun at the center of my 80 meter
dipole with a simple feeder spreader.  Now I can run my KPA500 on any part
of the 80 meter band (through a tuner, of course, for the CW portion) with
no issues.

 

So last night I'm thinking, maybe I can squeeze a couple of watts out of the
80 meter diplole on 160. I tuned around and heard well.  I tweaked my
antenna tuner and found a low SWR 'sweet spot,' albeit very narrow in freq.
coverage.  Running barefoot, I called a couple of guys, they came right
back.  I found a clear spot and called CQ, and run started - all west coast
stuff.  I'm "fresh meat" at this point.   Well, I thought, let's see if the
KPA500 is as happy with the antenna tuner as the K3 is.  Answer:  yes.  So I
had another better run - including several east coasters calling me (the big
guns like W2GD and KD4D).  

 

All in all, in a little over an hour, I made over 70 Qs - including PJ2T and
TI5W for new ones on that band (I've worked almost nothing in terms of DX on
160, but I do have WAS from years ago when I had a full-sized dipole).

I felt "strong," i.e. just about everyone I called came back, and I know
from experience that 160 is often a band of 'alligators' - big signal guys
who can't really hear much.

 

RFI, you say?  Yep!  We have dimmers on light switches in the entry way of
our house.   The lights came on and off and kind rolled up and down in
intensity as I was on the air.  Similarly the backlight on the display unit
of a  newly acquired weather station ran through its phases from full
brightness to off.

But no lasting damage, no garage doors opened or anything like that!

 

Given where we are and where we are going with sunspots for the next few
years, I guess it's time to bite the bullet and put up a 160 meter vertical.

I'm open to suggestions for commercial products that people like.  I talked
to a few vendors in Dayton earlier this year, but I don't recall who!

 

73 - Jim K6ZH