Topband: NVIS Antenna

[Brian Campbell]

Back in 2017 I put up a 160M Inverted V with the apex at about 35' and the ends at 8' with the only goal being to try inband SO2R on 160M. My reasoning was the V "should" be able to work stations out to ~500Km ( 300 Miles ) and more importantly hold my run QRG while I went up the band to S&P for Mults with the second radio and my "real" antenna ( Inverted L with 105' vertical and with >20,000' of radials ).

To my amazement I was getting RBN hits from coast to coast in NA as well as the northern part of SA. The reports were on average about 10db - 15db lower than my TX vertical "but" I was still being heard. So in the 2018 and 2019 CQ160 CW and ARRL 160 contests I was SO2R and both years I was called by stations from as close as 100 km to as far as the West coast of NA ( ~3,500 km ), and as far south as the  Southern Caribbean ( also ~3,500 km ) on the low Inverted V. So not only did it hold my QRG but it worked a lot better than I had thought it would beforehand.

Then on 2018-03-27 at 11:10z ( SR -4 min ) I even worked VK3HJ ( thanks Luke ) 16,116 km away with it as well so as Carl says "it's better than no antenna". Also that QSO was most likely ducting propagation as it only happened after I had lost all of Luke's signal on my vertical and then switched over to the V where he was Q5 and ~S3.

All the above was done with 100 watts so if you ( or I ) had run legal limit power the results would have been even better.

FYI I am no longer doing inband SO2R on 160 ( or any other band ) after having too many close calls with frying a front end. So caveat emptor if you try it.

73,
Brian
VE3MGY












________________________________
From: Topband <topband-bounces+ve3mgy=hotmail.ca at contesting.com> on behalf of Carl Luetzelschwab <carlluetzelschwab at gmail.com>
Sent: March 15, 2020 3:47 PM
To: topBand List <topband at contesting.com>
Subject: Re: Topband: NVIS Antenna

For those who are antenna challenged, don't sell a 160m inverted-vee at low
height too short.

My 160m antenna at the moment is an inverted-vee at an apex of 45 feet.
Additionally, the last third of each end is at 90 degrees to the main
portion and horizontal at only 7 feet or so off the ground. It's what fits
on the property.

In the CQ 160m CW contest in January 2017. I came away with 44 states
(missed ME, ID, NE and AK), 7 Canadian provinces (VE9, VY2, VE2, VE3, VE5,
VE6 and VE7) and 17 DXCC entities (mostly Caribbean, Central America,
Mexico and South America, with a few Europeans, a North African and a KH6
in the mix). I was seldom #1 in a pile-up, but eventually I usually got
through with 800 Watts to the inv-vee.

It's better than no antenna.

Carl K9LA
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