Friday night, I was only on until midnight due to a Saturday morning commitment. 

Signals we OK, but I couldn’t hear any of the EU stations. I worked a bunch and even ran for a while with good success. About 10p, I noticed the 160 SWR was about 13:1 in the tuner bypass mode. It should be under 1.5 from 1800-1850ish. Hmmmm 

After getting home from the commitment on Saturday, I strolled out back to check on the inv-L. All looked OK. 

Back in the shack, I took a closer look at the feedlines connected to the antenna switches. Sure enough, the 80m OCF and 160 antenna feedlines were swapped. The OCF normally is connected to a different radio. 

Saturday night was way better, hearing/working EU and even the 9K2 for an ATNO on 160. 

RJ, yes, time to up your game on 160. These antennas are pretty low tech and work well. And I have to up my game on 20-15-10....


tnx
Mike / W5JR
Alpharetta GA


On Feb 1, 2021, at 13:28, Jeff Clarke <ku8e@ku8e.com> wrote:

RJ

Don't give up. You should try shorting  the feed line of your 80/160m OCF and tune it with a tuner to make it a T vertical. It should work fine with just one radial. For a long time K4BAI was shorting the feed line of his 80 meter Inverted V and not using any radials. When he ran his amp he could work some EU stations. We recently improved his antenna to a "real" Inverted L.  He lives on a pretty small city lot and we put just one 130 foot long radial on it zig zagging into the bushes in his backyard. I think he feels he might be getting out better than he did with his old antenna. Plus he's not dealing with RF issues inside his shack anymore. He could probably comment on that.

Here's a good webpage with ideas for 160 meter antennas. - http://topbandhams.com/?id=6

Jeff

On 2/1/2021 07:40 AM, RJ Hubbard wrote:


---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: <webform@b4h.net>
Date: Mon, Feb 1, 2021 at 7:34 AM
Subject: CQ160 CW WF4W Single Op HP
To: <3830@contesting.com>, <rj.wf4w@gmail.com>


                    CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW - 2021

Call: WF4W
Operator(s): WF4W
Station: WF4W

Class: Single Op HP
QTH:
Operating Time (hrs): 6

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 427  State/Prov = 52  Countries = 4  Total Score = 52,696

Club: South East Contest Club

Comments:

My 160m game is WEAK! My 80/160m OCF is prettyt much an NVIS antenna - it's
worthless. So I stuck a 19' lenght of wire into the 80m resonator of my 6btv and
turned it into an invered L :) -- works pretty well domestically - DX isnt
happening on this thing though.

Still a lot of fun - what CW contest ISNT fun? I was able to get some pretty
decent runs and rates and I'm beginning to like S&P more and more as I find
the balance between runs and S&P.


Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/

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