Topband: JT65 on 160

[Aravind Balasubramanian]

I too am using something similar, if not less effective,  a Butternut HF 2v
with a homebrew TBR160 coil installed on a pushup mast 25 feet from terrace
(2nd floor) level, with 2 radials for 80 and 40m squeezed into my tiny 1400
sq feet terrace perimeter sloping around. Max power I have is 100W. I have
worked 34 and confirmed 28. Missed working 9n7ei :-( but worked s21. Infact
have hearing s21zee s7 now.

Living right in the heart of Indias 4th largest city - Chennai formerly
Madras, noise is a big challenge. Elevating the vertical and the radials
made a 2 S point reduction in noise level from S 9 to S 7 between 1 am and
6 am.

Missed working Stewperry last year. as the alarm couldnt wake me up. Was
too tired after finishing my first Olympic Triathlon on that saturday.
Managed to work a few on CQ 160m. I was focussing my Night AIR time on 80
to reach my 80m DXCC and was on 160m only when there were no new DXCC
entities in 80m as reported by pskreporter/hamspots.net

Built a waller flag but since its in my radial field of the vertical it was
not very effective. Have to convince my neighbour to let me install it in
his terrace.

One JA wanted VU2 very badly and we were trying for a QSO for days together
on JT65. JAs can TX digital only above 1900 Khz and VU 160m allocation is
1820 - 1860. The butternut's 2:1 SWR bandwidth is just + - 4 Khz so Rxing
above 1900 was a challenge inspite of using my IC7300's 2 pre amps. Then we
decided to try CW and completed the QSO in 15 minutes. All we needed was on
propagation wave peak :-)

Moral of the story CW is more effective than JT65/JT9 on top band if you
are CW capable. The only problem is the noise wears you out quickly. Max 1
- 2 hours.

Max distance I was heard was VO1MP but we couldnt complete the QSO as he
was running barefoot and so couldnt break thru my noise floor. Almost all
who worked me were running QRO and had excellent RX antenna (mostly
beverages)

Currently contemplating building a Noise canceller as listed in
http://www.g8jnj.net/rfnoisecancellation.htm Apparently the MFJ Noise
canceller and DX Engineering Noise cancellers are all extensions of this
design. Perhaps its a bit late as summer is already hear.

Any one wants skeds please email me.

73 de Aravind vu2abs

On Mon, Mar 20, 2017 at 10:37 PM, Mike DeChristopher <
mfdechristopher at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> One of the locals here is very into the JT -modes, almost exclusively
> on topband. He uses 100W into a single Inv-L with two 1/4-wave radials
> and nothing for RX. I think he's about halfway to 160 DXCC in a
> calendar year and reports working everything he hears barefoot -- but
> again, no RX antenna, so insert appropriately-sized grain of salt.
>
> As he is a college student, he is in a similar situation to the
> rapidly growing number of hams with very little space and a rented QTH
> or other restrictions. It is refreshing to see that particular
> community excited about 160 and actively innovating -- even if it
> creates a [hopefully temporary] gator or two along the way.
>
> The JT modes, especially WSPR, actually prove useful for us contesters
> as well. In the weeks leading up to the event, they can give very
> accurate and station-specific data similar to the RBN, but
> occasionally in greater numbers on 160. I used WSPR for that purpose
> ahead of most majors, but those digital modes make my old MP's smell
> funny these days.
>
> 73
> Mike N1TA
>
>
>
> On Fri, Mar 17, 2017 at 11:27 PM, Wes Stewart <wes_n7ws at triconet.org>
> wrote:
> > The QRP guys will be miffed.
> >
> >
> > On 3/17/2017 12:48 PM, James Wolf wrote:
> >>
> >> If I find someone on 160 in zone 23 that uses JT65/9 can someone give
> me a
> >> reason we should not use 1000 watts?
> >>
> >> Jim - KR9U
> >>
> >
> > _________________
> > Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
> _________________
> Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
>