TopBand: 160M de W0AH

[W0AH@aol.com]

Worked YL2KA last night shortly after sunset for country #83.  ZK1XXP had
been #82 on Sept. 18.  Worked several more Europeans last night plus CO and
XE.  
I recently replaced the small variable cap on my 90' shunt fed tower (with
50' of wire coming off the top at 45 degrees) with a larger air variable cap
that will handle a KW.  Yesterday afternoon I repaired the Ten Tec Titan that
Ten Tec had repaired a year ago.  A used tube I bought last year, took out
several elements in the PS and the other tube.  It cost about $500 for the
repairs and UPS plus $500 for new tubes- too much for last years amateur
radio budget so I did not operate 160M last year.  Using new tubes last week,
the amplifier worked for about an hour, then pop, while in standby. A cap
between B- and ground blew up in a hundred pieces.  Ten Tec suggested the
circuit board foil going to the cap had probably been damaged in the original
disaster last year.  They sent me a new cap.  I put the new cap in and
replaced the burned up foil with solder wick as they had done on another part
of the PS circuit board. Last night I ran a high power (1KW) on 160M for the
first time in over a year.  Beware of using used tubes!  
I also proped up the NE beverage yesterday.  Parts of it had been lying on
the ground.  It seemed to work pretty well last night.  
Listening to the OX run EU last night made me aware how many Europeans are on
160M.  Now if I could just hear most of them!
Good DX!
Doug  W0AH  Colorado
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