Topband: 9M0W Day 2 on 160M - A Better Showing

[k1zm at aol.com]

At sunrise after breakfast Krassy and I.wired in a 180 delay transformer that could be switched from the operating position to switch the 2 el array from BROADSIDE to end FIRE - and also to unidirectional NE or SW.






Thus night 2 at 1030z was  far better for us on Topband - DU7ET was there again and we were ON TIME at 1015z for our SUNSET at 1033z..  Instantly N4WW was worked with a respectable signal (this means we could hear.him at about RST 349.)


Since Dragan YT3W has the logs and I am now doing this from memory, I do not remember if we then worked NO3M - or if it was the next night - but Eric became our Northeastern most qso on 160M - so congrats top Eric for hearing us and for making us be able to hear him (barely!)  Water-weak like would aptly describe our side of this qso (HI)


We worked quite a few USA mid-western and Far Western stations this night - plus at least 300 Europeans.  My son Patrick KK6ZM had a great signal near his SR peakl - it was among the loudest signals we worked on night two.


At SR after this night, Krassy and I decided to take down the runway 160M radiator, and use only the single 160m radiator - and we threw its 20 odd radials into the salt water lagoon.




We moved this spider pole to the north side of theisland and plavced it on the seawall - and used it fro 80M SSB  thereafter.


We also decided we had to try to find a way to get a beverage up on 160M for RX - even if it was only one that could be aimed at EU.


ZL3WW came up with a scheme to use the 2nd abandoned vertical feedline for this beverage and by relocating the coax slightly we started at the runway and got a NW beverage straight for about 800 feet toward the seawall - then we crossed a pathway in the air - and ran it at least another 500 feet along the seawall.


This turned out to be a real gem - as we ran the table for HOURS into EU after SR had passed in W6/W7.  It made a huge difference in our ability to work the 2nd and 3rd tier EU callers.


It worked so well that ZL3WW and I tried our hand the next afternoon  on a USA beverage to the NE.


The plan was to switch the feedline to the USA at our SS and then at 1 430 after W7 SR move the feedline over to the EU beverage again,  This was easy to do at 10:30PM in the dark as it was an open field and with a flashlight it took all of 5 mins.  


This was a pretty fair beverage - about 650 feet long - straight as an arrow - but it also ran close to the hotel complex for most of its run.  As I feared,this one was not stone cold quiet like the Eu beverage was - when I switched to it there was some kind of background hash that covered up most weaker signals.  Listening on the EU beverage did not work well either towards NA - as while it was super quiet - it was at least 90 degrees off of a true NE shortpath NA heading - some USA signals could be heard on it - but not the East Coast weaker guys we desperately wanted to work.


So night 4 we spent listening for NA on the single 160m vertical located at the seawall - and listened to EU on its quieter NW beverage.


AGAIN Eu was bedlam all night long - 160M to NA was only  so so - we worked into the mid west and then the NW USA at their SR pretty well.


Near SR Krassy who had departed for 80CW late into the EU opening - went to sleep - and YT3W took over near our SR grayline peak.


I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw his 80 CW Grayline contacts come onto my screen.


In the space of 10 mins, he logged K1CP (Maine), N1RJ (also Maine) - and W1JR (NH) - followed by PY5EG - Atilano - and then the LP sunset peak had passed on the eastern seaboard of NA because we went into daylight on our side at SR.


Next email I will talk about our final night on Topband - which was our last night at SS on Layang Layang.























Jeff Briggs
DXing on the Edge: The Thrill of 160 Meters 
Available worldwide through BookBaby, Array Solutions, DX Engineering, Royal Society of Great Britain, & Amazon