Topband: ITINERANT 160 M ANTENNA - Response Summary

[bills stuff]

So gently getting back to the topic of the original post which was:
Getting thoughts on relatively simple and relatively inexpensive 
portable 160 m antenna, potentially deployable by one person, that 
allows for flexibility and somewhat predictable tuning for use on modest 
Dxpeds or rare location indigenous ops.

Strawman proposal was for Inv L 50’(or more) alum mast with elevated 
radials all tuned with “hairpin” shunt coil – plus a request for 
suggestions and potential actual physical assistance with 
testing/assembly/distribution.


Principal thoughts to date by TB types posted and direct:

1. More top wires than just one
– doable with minimum additions provided the site has space. Should 
improve performance somewhat, requires top wire supports in other 
directions (which may only be a minor issue) and some more wire.

2. Mast higher than 50’
- I believe at 55’ (~17 m) it is still quite possible to hoist it up 
(maybe not walk up but a rope attached 1/3+ of the way up)

3. Use 18 m fiberglass telescope instead of alum.
- Doable and can be walked up they say, but nearly twice as heavy as 
alum, more expensive and bending at top reduces effective height a bit. 
But still if you’ve got one . . .

4. Ground radials instead of elevated.
- Could be good for some locations but requires 20+ m radius circle 
thick with wires. The innkeeper might not be pleased and also space may 
not be available unless you go the tent/generator route. I suppose the 
antenna product could be in two flavors, ground and elevated, with 
possible different tuning of the top wire.

5. Go to a site that has nicely spaced high palm trees (on the good 
propagation side of course) and then . . .
- I welcome volunteer advanced palm tree scouts. Yet perhaps not all (or 
even most) interesting 160 m entities have palm trees.
- Yet the point is well taken that a good site with advanced planning 
(Google Earth/eyeballs) is important (when possible). This matter has 
been looked at for KH8 but I am looking at broader uses as well.

6. Matching not worth the effort with modern ATUs
- Yes but I would not think of trying a semi-serious 160 m effort with 
low power (or difficult to match antenna), and the high power matching 
units have $, size and weight issues. The current plan has the charm of 
a simple, flexible matching coil even at the expense of tuning by 
fiddling with top wire and/or elevated radial lengths

7. Receive antenna use
- I purposely did not mention this just to see if it would be seen as an 
oversight among TBers. My only personal experience is I don’t have one 
and there have been a significant number of high end 160 stations (who 
surely have Rx ants) I could hear but could not hear me (my ant is a bit 
better than the one proposed here and with 500 w). Of course, his story 
may not hold up for a rare-ish DX station.

Anything else?

Bill N6MW