Topband: 1.99?

[W7lr at aol.com]

This morning, Ross 9M2AX and I and others, did some experimenting on 80 and 
 160, with differences between the two bands like night and day, as we 
would  expect.  He was a real 599 on 80 on the 90' tx vertical or on a 370'  
Beverage to JA (better s/n on that).  He copied me 489 on 80.  On 160  he was 
449 about half an hour before sunrise, but couldn't hear me due to his  high 
qrn level.  
 
It got me wondering, are we using our resources to good advantage?  I  am 
no expert on 160 propagation but obviously know it is much different than  
80.  What about the rest of 160m, say up around 1.99 MHz?  Maybe K9LA  or NM7M 
could tell us what to expect there?  Perhaps we should try some  tests or 
experiments there?  What does the propagation curve look like  between 1.8, 
1.99, and 3.5 ?
 
I know there are problems in doing such tests.  Tx antenna bandwidth,  band 
frequency assignments, 160 band usage at the high end, etc.  Most rx  
antennas probably work all over the band.  Does a 1.99 MHz qso count for  160, 
like we did with JA around 1.9 MHz before?  
 
My 90' vertical has four 42' top loading wires at the top end of the top  
guy ropes, and so has great bandwidth and so I can tx all the way up to 2.0 
MHz  (use two L networks at the base to cover all of 160). 
 
So there might be possibilities for some simplex or split frequency  
combinations to run some experiments.
 
Is there any interest or ideas along these lines?
 
73, Bob W7LR in MT 
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