Topband: Need antenna help on 160 and 80 meters ( new Dxer )

[Jeff]

Hello All,
 I am just joining the topband reflector for the first time. I need some
help with gaining some antenna performance with what I have for 160 and
80 meters. I know there is a price of giving up performance on these
bands if you cant put up anything too high vertically like a 60 to 100
foot tower or having at least one to three wavelengths of a beverage
wire. My restrictions are that I cannot put up anything higher than @ 30
feet and the backyard is only 200 feet by 100 feet. I can get away with
my VHF/UHF EME Arrays only because they are low to the ground and are on
maximum tower heights of 25 feet ( EME doesn't require high antennas,
just as long as they can see the moon ).

What I do have one 160 and 80 is a coax going up one of the towers to
about 25 feet. The ground is tied to the tower and there is one 80 meter
ground radial attached to the braid where it is attached to the tower
and that ground radial is elevated about 20 feet off the ground. The
center conductor side has two 1/4 wavelength wires for 160 and two 1/4
wavelength wires for 80 meters. One 160 meters, one wire is at a azimuth
of 30 degrees, the other is 110 degrees. On 80 meters, one wire is at a
azimuth of 50 degrees and the other at 180 degrees. The 80 meter ground
radial is at a azimuth of 290 degrees.

I hear many West Coasters here in California working Europe on both of
these bands but I am certain that these stations have four squares
and/or full length verticals with elevated ground radials. On 80 for
example at my location with this antenna setup, EI6S is barely in and
out of the noise level when most around here copy his signal at 59.

The question I have is what is the best antenna I can use for DX on 160
meters and 80 meters with only a height of 25 - 30 feet and a restricted
area of 200 by 100 foot yard ?? What do you think of the HV-2 vertical
?? Or what is a good "short" loaded or linear vertical that will give
good DX performance on these bands ?? I know many of you have worked Dx
stations with small antennas and have experience with which ones work or
do not work. I have a feeling that I need more of a vertical antenna (
even one that has coils ) rather than horizontal for the low angle of
radiation.

Any suggestions are appreciated. Remember my restrictions and I am a new
Dxer to these bands.



K7XQ Jeff
Atwater,CA.
Grid: CM97qi
EME CW and JT-65 modes

50 MHz: single 7 ele 10 dBd w/polarity rot 100 watts
144 MHz: 4 X 2MPX20 w/polarity rot 19.5 dBd 800 Watts
222 MHz: 1 X 5 W.L. no polarity rot 15 dBd 100 watts
432 MHz: 4 X 9 W.L. 23.3 dBd 800 Watts
1296 MHz: (pending) 4 meter dish 31 dBd 300 Watts
10 GHz: Summer 2005

K7XQ Webpage:  http://www.elite.net/~k7xq/k7xq.html