Topband: TX4T vs. TX3A (not TX5C as in previous post) from Far Eastcoast

[rfoxwor1 at tampabay.rr.com]

---- Jeff <w7jw at arrl.net> wrote: 
> Congratulations on working TX4T on TB. 160m has been full of surprises for
> me as well this year. 


> From: VO1HP [mailto:fdavis at nfld.net]
 --  I took a quick
> listen on 160M and was very surprised to hear TX4T fully Q5 on 1831.5 -
> After a few mins he  vanished 
> ....
> I decided to call him using about 400W to Inv L . To my great surprise he
> came back to me on the first call. 
> Moral of this story:  Always check 160M before going to bed!

I'll second that!

Although being a ham for many years, it is only last year (after moving to
a more rural location) that I have been able to truly get started on 160.
I still have just a very small station, and am improving it as I am able.
I previously ( up to 2008) lived for 10 years in a townhouse in Tampa, a
highly deed restricted area. From there I worked a handful of Europeans with
a TS-430, a 60 foot stealth end fed wire about 20 feet high, hidden in
trees and a very small ground. (and somewhat better results on HF...) Before
2007 I was off the air.

Present location is near Lakeland FL in the WCF district, grid EL88xc.

This past winter, and now,  I had/have an inverted L about 40 ft up and 60 ft
over, between 2 trees. It is end fed from a MFJ tuner right inside the shack,
next to the window sash. The end fed wire comes right off the terminal post.
The wire runs right across the roof of the house, thanks to where the
trees are. (yes, some RFI.) I can tune it to 1.05 to 1 but probably very low
radiation efficiency.

A ground lead (#6 stranded Cu) also runs from the tx out the same sash to an
outside iron water faucet pipe, and from there a homemade radial plate that
feeds fifteen 65-foot radial wires lying on the ground that cover an arc of about
240 degrees, of #14 stranded Cu. These run out from the corner of the house,
directly below the uplead of my end fed wire.

The xmtr is a TS-870 running 100 watts. I have a FL-2100B but of course it
doesn't cover 160. I just got a used AL-811H and when I get the 220V outlet
installed, I'll start using that, and hope the RFI won;t be too bad.

I don't yet have a good receive antenna. I am building a coax loop with RG-6.
For now I listen on the xmit antenna and the noise level is usually s6 to s7.

With this small 100 w setup I worked about 65 countries on 160 CW, and maybe
less than a dozen on 160 SSB, last year. I'm in the low 70's now. Recent contacts
on 160 CW include KH6ZM and KH7XS, TX4T at 1002Z on 1831,and earlier TX3D
at 0942Z on 1824, this last one when he worked the pile down to being
able to go simplex. That was actually a relative easy contact. I attribute that
to the skill of the Op at the TX3D + TX4T end of the circuit, good rx ants and
probablky very low noise there. I had to catch the QSB peaks, the fades were
sometimes 20 dB.

Last winter at this time of year I was working Europeans with -sometimes-
little difficulty. I think the Eu signals are -at best- worse this year than
last winter. There may be a factor where US stns with really good rx antennas
may see signals down from s7 - s8 last year, to maybe s6 this year, due to
generally worse propagation. For a station like mine this means the same Eu
signals drown in the noise, so it's a lot more apparent here.

I have a long background in MW BCB DXing, having logged 49 states and some
85 countries on MW, from W2 NJ and recall the solar minima in 1964 and 1973 when
VK2/VK3/ZL1 Bcst was heard on EC of NA. These really good EC receptions were mostly
all just done in the one year of the true minima. Now, with all the QRM from local
stations that never sign off, these results can't be duplicated, one reason
I haven't seriously DX'ed on MW BCB for many years. But I think the 
2008-2009 winter was truly the minima this cycle. I recall SWL'ing signals
such as GD4BEG on 160 cw, in the 1970's; it was reported then that all
they could use was 10 watts. Wish I could have 'played' then. Also, Japanese
stations such as on 747 and 774 kHz were heard last year in NH and Mass for
the first time in years, generally in October.

One thing that really amazes me is listening on 160 to stations in the
midwest, or further west working DX, those stations sometimes are JBA
(just barely audible) here but are easily heard by the DX. I am still
trying to understand how selective prop can be to allow this, and how
sometimes I too seem to have one-way skip, when I call and call a solid
579/589 signal and can't get through, even when he is going "QRZ" then
all of a sudden he comes back to me; this happened with EL2, CE1/K7
and 6W/DL2 ops last year. (Maybe it's skip and then maybe I'm just outside
of his rx passband).

I've probably gone on long enough about this. I just wanted to say,
that 100 watts and a poor antenna/ground sometimes CAN do the job, but
it won't be handed up on a silver platter. And I think I am near
the end of the road for the "easy ones" for DXCC on this band.

One more thought ... I am at the end of a small street with 7200v service
on overhead poles. The local noise out here can be much worse that I ever
experienced when in my toney deed-restricted place in Tampa with utilities
fed underground. I did not then realize that powerline induced noise can
travel for thousands of feet, well enough to create problems. Fortunately
our local power utility is very helpful on these noise issues.

I hope this has been of some interest. And yes, I certainly do plan
major improvements in my antenna situation as I get to do them, and 2
rescue horses we are 'fostering' let us ....

73 Bob Foxworth  K2EUH