Topband: 160 Antenna Struggles

[Rip Smith K3XO]

Greetings Tobanders ...

I think this is my first post. I have been "lurking" for about a year 
and I have enjoyed reading the reflector and I have learned a lot. Since 
this seems to be the hangout for the top 160 meter people, I am hoping I 
can get some ideas about my antenna setup.

Last year was my first semi-serious attempt to work some DX on 160 - I 
say "semi-serious" because an inverted L with one radial and 100 watts 
would hardly be considered a serious effort. The inverted L was 
essentially a dipole with the "hot" leg thrown over a tree about 35-40 
feet high with the rest of it strung out horizontally to another tree. 
The ground side of the dipole was run out in the opposite direction as 
an elevated (4-6 feet) radial/counterpoise. The feed point was about 7 
feet above the ground.

This year I decided I wanted to improve on it so I assembled an inverted 
L out of some old beam parts. The vertical section is 49 feet and the 
loading wire was adjusted for best SWR. The loading wire slopes down to 
about 15 feet above the ground. For radials, I have two elevated radials 
running in opposite directions. Since the feed point is only about 8 
inches above the ground, I ran the radials up from there at 45 degrees 
to about 10 feet above ground and then out about another 130 feet. The 
radials were also trimmed for best SWR. The SWR at this point is 2:1 @ 
1805, 1.6:1 @ 1830 and 1.7:1 @ 1850 as measured on the SWR meter on the 
Icom Pro III.

Now for the struggle. I have had an difficult time working anything out 
of North America. I hear Europeans pretty well at times but they are not 
hearing me even when I am the only station calling. I call and call they 
call CQ again. This has happened enough times that I am getting a bit 
frustrated.

I'm specifically wondering if the method of sloping the radials up from 
the feed point is just a bad idea. Would elevating the feed point (to 
maybe 6-8 feet) be better? Since I don't have space in all directions 
for radials on the ground, I could only put out a few in the two 
directions maybe 30 degrees on either side for 120 foot radials.

It's been suggested that it's just tough with just 100 watts, but last 
year I had some satisfying contacts and managed to work 69 countries 
over the 2008-2009 160 meter season.

I'd appreciate any insights anyone might have.

73 Rip K3XO