Topband: 160m RX antenna testing surrogates?

[Richard (Rick) Karlquist]

The AM BCB band is unique in that it is virtually
never limited by noise; rather every channel has
deep layers of QRM to deal with.  The BCB is very
useful as a sanity check for beverages, because
they are still very directional in the BCB.  If I
have a broken beverage, the directionality will
be off and/or signals will be down.  None of this
guarantees that the beverage will actually hear
weak signals better than some other antenna.
For that, I use WWV/WWVH on 2.5 MHz.  I can compare
signal to noise ratios of antennas to be tested.
I make sure that my tuned loops can tuned to 2.5 MHz.


Rick N6RK