Topband: 5/160 installation results report

[Sam M]

I have been meaning to make a report on my results with the Hi-Q 5/160 install, 
but the 4 weeks it took me to get someone to put it up, lousy band conditions, 
plus the other miscellaneous life events have just been getting in the way of me 
writing up a detailed report. So the following is all you never wanted to know 
about the results.

*Note* I left the results of the 'other' bands operation in just for 
completeness feel free to ignore them if they bother you. ;-/

I guess you know the basic setup....
flat tar and gravel roof at 20 feet
16 radials each 13 feet long
out from the antenna base (18" x 24" metal plate)
now the outer ends are connected by soldering a wire
forming a ring around the circumference of the ends.
also I have one radial each for 160m, 80m, 60m, and 30m laying on the roof.
these run in a Southwesterly direction.
(only direction available to me as roof is 28.5 feet x 150 feet)
I have the 2 foot of mast under the 1 foot of coil
then a 1 foot extension
the the 12 inch by 20 inch EB-8 top hat
with a 103" stainless whip out the top of that.
over all height is about 13 feet and 7 inches.

Range of tuning is:
1.8mhz with about 3/4 of the approximately 100 turns used
to 14.0 mhz with about 1 turn to spare from the minimum stop.

I am using the MFJ-1922B for the tuning controller.
It gives me a reading of about 0-420 from one end to the other
of the approximately 100 usable turns (my guess/count of turns)
I notice even after zeroing the controller,
after I have used it for a while,
(bumping the up/down) to find the sweet spot.
I have to re-zero the controller as it gets off by a number of turns

The 4 amp circuit breaker (from Hi-Q) has *never* tripped!!!
and I didn't want to push it's ability to protect the motor.
So I added a 1ma full scale meter in the 12v line
now I can see when I hit the ends of the travel.
and stop the travel when I see on the meter
that it rises above the 350ma it normally uses to move the motor.

SWR results
about 80 feet of coax -
10 foot in a 10 inch diameter coil for a choke
no tuner
1.800   1.1:1
1.900   1.2:1
2.000	1.2:1
3.500 - 4.000    1.0:1
5.350   1.2:1
7.000   1.3:1
7.150   1.25:1
7.300   1.2:1
10.125  1.4:1
14.000 - 14.350  1.25:1
so I either don't run a tuner
or allow the internal TS-450SAT tuner to tweak the match.
(*note* I do have issues with the 40m swr and the tuner is necessary)
even though it's only 1.3:1 the rig cuts back on it's power out
might be solved by a specific radial for 40m
or perhaps a coax length change?

results are as follows:
160m running 70w ssb on voice peaks on the TS-450SAT's meter
*NOTE*: quoted to have ~1.3% efficiency on 160m
so are we talking maybe .9 watts erp ?????
close enough to qrp for me, hi hi.

I am talking with stations ranging from 5 miles to 325 miles away
this is from about 5am-7am local (sunrise is about @ 6:20am local)
I can hear all the stations that are in the group
noise floor is about S3 - S5
but some have marginal copy (40-60%) on me
although there is of course a big signal increase around sunrise
that makes me 100% to all of them
*remember* this is with 70w voice peak readings on my TS 450SAT meter

80m (100w) 12% efficient = ~12w erp
I am able to do fairly well out to about 325 miles away
some stations have problems copying me
and I have so much noise (S8 - S9)
that it's not very pleasant listening to the band noise to hear the guys
I've mainly been listened in the mornings 4am-8am local
tried a few contacts in evenings and nite
but only a few, (yea we hear you now go away), type reports
over here 80m is where most folks run a least kw to inverted vees
and listen with their rf gain cranked down and attenuators on 20-40db
===
did I mention they are all within a stones through of each other
and S-meter reports are usually 40-60 db over S9
they tend to not want to talk to you,
if your signals are under 20 over 9
oh well didn't want to talk to them anyway, hi hi.

40m (100w) 43% efficient = ~43w erp
seems to work just as well as it did on my 40m bug catcher
I can make my regional daytime traffic net checkins out to about 500 miles
Noise floor about S3-4 Signal reports 56-59+ with 100w ssb
Meaning I can talk to anything in the united states an night
and have made hawaii on ssb (in contest)
Australia with S3 reports on ssb
and Japan on CW


20m (100w) 77% efficient = ~77 watts erp
I am not use to, I really dislike the band
I prefer qso's like conversations
not the 599, next station please, kind of contacts
I did get a contact from both coasts during a contest
(best time for antenna checks, they want to get you in their logs)
(I live in TX so I'm about in the bottom middle of the states)

Overall results:
I'm very happy with the antenna
it has met my needs
Before I was using a loop antenna on the roof @ 20 feet
and only one of the 10 stations on 160m was able to copy me.

and with the addition of a 300w amp on 160m
(giving me 6db or 1 S-unit of gain over my 70w)
or actually bringing me up to 3.9 watts erp,
I may become a big gun and
I will be able to get my head up out of the weeds.

-- 
GB & 73
KA5OAI
Sam Morgan
http://linuxbasics.org
Linux, the lifetime learning experience.