Topband: beginners questions

[Stephen Schoeffel]

I have no 160 meter experience (yet) and therefore
will be asking a bunch of beginners questions. I hope
it is ok to do that here.

I would like to operate in the SSB contest on the
23-25 of this month. I plan to operate from an old
gravel pit located on a logging road. The gravel pit
is dug into a hillside, and thus there are trees
growing high above it. I was planning to use a 1/4
wavelength wire to the top of one of these trees,
along with several ground wires sloping from the roof
of my campervan to the ground. Does this sound like a
good idea?

I understand that I would probably need a different
antenna for receive. Would a 20 foot shielded
receiving loop be good enough? At this location I
would be several miles from any sources of QRM
(hopefully). The only other electric thing I would be
using would be a generator to run my radio.

If I do need a separate RX antenna (or antennas), here
comes my next question:

My radio is an Icom 736. It has dual VFO's and 2
antenna connectors. No matter what settings I try
(using split operation etc.) I can't seem to get it to
transmit on antenna 1 and receive on antenna 2. Is it
possible to do this with this radio?

If not, can I use the "send control jack" on the back
of the radio, designed to key a linear, to switch a
relay for the transmit antenna? Would delay in the
relay cause damage to my radio with VOX operation?

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I
appreciate any suggestions you can give me.
73,

Stephen
VE7OSO


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