Topband: Inverted L + FCP Report

[Markus Hansen]

Hi Gaylord:  Yes, the FCP has opened up a new world on 160 for me.  By the way how much power were you running in the contest? You were also very loud here.  I considered purchasing a linear before the contest but decided to run the contest at 100 watts which I have previously used.  It felt like I was using a linear though as so many times I would call very weak stations thinking that they will never hear me and bingo, they would come back with my call.  Wow.  Made the contest more enjoyable that is for sure.

Hope to be in the Stew Perry contest if all the kids and grandkids leave by then, HI.

73  Markus  VE7CA

On 2012-12-03, at 8:28 AM, gaylord gasque <ggasque at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Hi Markus,
>  
> I also have been operating 160 contests from my QTH near San Diego for the last 20 years.  Always using a sloping wire vertical and a ground radial system.  I tried many different radial systems, trying to find a solution to my very poor TX performance. 
>  
> This fall I switched to a FCP, like you.  I used the same radiator in the same location - bought the isolation transformer like you. 
>  
> Operating the the ARRL 160 this weekend - compared to my best previous effort I made ~ 3X the QSO's (394),  double the sections (82), worked some DX (9), 4 X the score (65,400).  I have been in this game for 50+ years, but the introduction of the FCP really opened my eyes about the truly poor performance of compromise radial systems.  
>  
> Glad you had good luck with it also - what a great development!
>  
> Also, thanks for the contact in the contest, you had a great signal here in SDG.
>  
> 73,
>  
> Gaylord  N4SF
>  
>  
> 
> From: Markus Hansen <mkve7ca at gmail.com>
> To: topband <topband at contesting.com> 
> Sent: Sunday, December 2, 2012 5:47 PM
> Subject: Topband: Inverted L + FCP Report
> 
> Inverted L + FCP Report (December 2, 2012)
> 
> Over the last approx. 20 Years I have operated in quite a few 160 contests from my city lot situated on a mountain side on rocky poor soil in North Vancouver BC which is located in the south west corner of the province.  I have tried many different 160 meter antenna configurations to try and improve my score without much success.  My latest antenna was a full wave very odd shaped 160 meter loop which was better than previous, loaded dipoles, dipoles and inverted L's fed against odd length radials in the  ground. 
> 
> Several months ago I decided to give the inverted L another try but this time with a FCP replacing my ground radials.  
> 
> The FCP is located 15 feet above the ground over one end of our home.  The vertical wire is 61 feet and then horizontal for 64 feet with another 51 feet of wire sloping down at 40 degrees from the end of the 64 foot length of wire for a total wire length of 176 ft.  (I have two 90 foot trees on opposite sides of our city lot to support wire antennas) This puts the maximum radiating current in the top 1/16th section of the vertical wire above all the surrounding houses, trees, power line poles etc. Since the radiating element is longer than a ¼ wave length I matched it to 50 ohms at 1824 kHz with a series connected high voltage capacitor of 300 pf.  The isolation balun was purchased from Balun Designs,  Model 1142s as recommended by K2AV.  The measured 2:1 BW is 52 KHz.  
> 
> I was active this weekend during the ARRL 160 meter contest running 100 Watts.  I am very happy to report that I was able to hold a CQ freq. for lengthy periods and many stations called me.  This has never happened before.  Also in S&P most often I was heard on the first call even when the calling station was right at my receiver noise level.  In addition I worked the following prefixes with little difficulty.  PJ2, C6 XE, KH6, KH8, KL7 and JA's.  I even had a JA call me when I was calling CQ.  This never happened before.  I called CE/K7CA several times and he came back with VE7? but he was unable to get the rest of my call.  
> 
> In addition, several times I heard local hams who run high power ( approx. +12 db advantage to my 100 watts) call someone and make a contact.  I would call as well and every time I was also able to make the contact.
> 
> Obviously my new antenna is working and my conclusion, it is working very well. 
> 
> Thank you Guy, K2AV for you research and Jack, W0UCE for publishing Guy's information on your web site
> at http://www.w0uce.net/K2AVantennas.html
> 
> Markus 
> North Vancouver, BC  CANADA
> WEB:  http://www.ve7ca.net/
> 
> 
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>