Topband: Re: Low Rx Dipole on Topband

[Donald Chester]

>
>Someone on these pages said this week that you can never have TOO MANY Rx
>antennas for 160M - I would agree with that assessment.  You just NEVER 
>know what
>will work best when listening on Topband......

Several years ago I built a K6STI "low-noise" horizontal rx loop (see QST 
Sept 95).  It turned out to be a dud 90 % of the time.  When I first tried 
it, I thought it had been a total waste of time, but I find it gives 
superior s/n ratio for stations 100-150 miles away.  Occasionally, but 
rarely, it outperforms the beverage with certain signals.  I have all my 
available rx antennas on a rotary coax swith, and for every QSO, I always  
rotate the switch and check out all the antennas for best signal.  Sometimes 
the best one is totally unexpected.  When in a "roundtable" QSO, I often 
switch among various antennas as each station transmits.  Still, for 
Canadian and European reception the NNE terminated beverage is nearly always 
the best one.

Don k4kyv

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