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

[Dennis Vernacchia]

Same issue with the newly acquired Acurite WX  Station from Costco and I
put a 2.4 inch 31 Mix donut on each lead going into the WX Station Monitor
unit ....to no avail ...maybe a different mix toroids might work like 43 or
77.....I CC Jim K9YC for his thoughts. I checked on my phone AP and the
actual unit up on the roof was not affected as per the readings I saw on
phone but the monitor head in the shack was useless during contest......all
well with display after monitor recovered all readings shortly after
contest transmission stopped

For $60,...it's a beauty of a WX Stn tho !

N6KI

On Dec 4, 2016 5:53 PM, "Jim Price" <jnprice at pacbell.net> wrote:

> 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
>
>
>
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