Topband: What antenna would you build?

[Tree]

Sorry I am a bit late to the party.  You certainly can't go wrong with what
K3LR or AA1K have.

One question that maybe I would ask before giving advice - is what do you
want to do with it?  Is your primary goal to work as many countries as
possible - or are you looking to be competitive in contests?  If so - which
contests?

160 meter antennas generally can be put into two categories - transmit and
receive.  The receive side is actually where to put your emphasis.
Although some TX antennas have enough directivity to be useful on RX as
well - HOWEVER, is any contest, it is useful to have an omni directional
transmit antenna that is effective (which can be done with the K3LR
approach).

My suggestion might be to start with a simple 1/4 wave stick - which will
enable you to work most anything you can hear - and then focus on a good
array of RX antennas.  You can add parasitic elements to it later if you
want to mess around with them.  They do take some tweaking to get tuned in
just right - and also limit the amount of the band you can use (a downside
in contests from the West coast where we often get pushed around the band).

Tree N6TR

On Thu, Mar 24, 2022 at 4:27 AM Jon Zaimes, AA1K via Topband <
topband at contesting.com> wrote:

> My version of Tim's array was installed in 1998, with 120 on-ground
> radials under each element. A few years later I added an extra director
> toward Europe for an additional 0.9 db gain in that direction.
> It brought me up to 329 countries on 160, including JT, HS, XZ, VU, A5, BA.
> After a few years I was looking for something more and came up with a
> broadside/endfire array that offers about 8.5 db gain over a single
> vertical. WW2Y/K2WI first used a version of this in New Jersey in the
> 1980s, with Inverted L elements hung from trees. VY2ZM has one using
> full-size towers.
> My version has a footprint of 325 feet by 146 feet, oriented to favor
> Europe. One of the T-shaped wire elements (no. 12 THHN, 73.5 feet vertical,
> 58 feet horizontal) is borrowed from the K3LR array, switched with relays.
> The other three are hung from towers and trees. Each element has 120
> on-ground radials, about 130 feet long. A couple of bs/ef arrays are
> described in ON4UN's book.
> If you add four more elements this becomes the 8-circle array, switchable
> in 8 directions (may not fit in 5 acres). N5IA (SK) built one of these in
> Arizona, still in use by the NA7TB club station.
> K9DX had a 9-circle array in Illinois for many years, since dismantled.
> More complex but very effective.
> 73/Jon
>
> Jon P. Zaimes, AA1K Tower climber for hire http://www.aa1k.us/ Cell:
> 302-632-2353email: jz73 at verizon.net or aa1k at arrl.net
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tim Duffy <k3lr at k3lr.com>
> To: 'Dino Darling' <dino at kx6d.com>; 'Topband at contesting.com' <
> topband at contesting.com>
> Sent: Thu, Mar 24, 2022 1:13 am
> Subject: Re: Topband: What antenna would you build?
>
> Hello Dino,
>
> Take a look in the last three editions of the ON4UN Low Band book - in the
> Yagi chapter.
>
> I have described in detail the 3 element vertical Yagi for 160 meters that
> I
> am using. Gives over 5 dB of gain (over a single 1/4 wavelength vertical)
> and the front to back is over 30 dB at the peak. Four directions. It works
> good for about 40 KHz of the band (great for DX contests). I do have CW and
> SSB optimum settings for the parasitic elements. W5ZN, AA1K, K9CT, NR5M and
> VE3EJ have built this antenna as well. It can work omni as well. Requires
> one tower 120 feet tall and a LC matching network to step up the 25 ohm
> feedpoint impedance.
>
> It is easy to build and very effective. Twice from K3LR we worked over 100
> DXCC in one weekend in the CQWW CW contest - from almost Ohio...
>
> It does require five extensive ground radial systems (one under each
> element). The best DX with this antenna was JT5DX in zone 23 during the
> CQWW
> 160 meter contest and this past November, RW0A in zone 18 - in the morning
> local time here!
>
> 73
> Tim K3LR
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Topband [mailto:topband-bounces+k3lr=k3lr.com at contesting.com] On
> Behalf Of Dino Darling
> Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2022 12:39 AM
> To: Topband at contesting.com
> Subject: Topband: What antenna would you build?
>
> If you may and you are willing to indulge me; if you were about to buy
> 5-acres with no neighbors or restrictions and wanted to erect a serious
> 160M
> antenna system, what would you build and why? We can pass on the Radio
> Arcala discussion; nobody's that cool.
>
> A loaded 4-square? 1/4 wave stick (or longer)? Phased dipoles? (fill in the
> blank)?
>
> I've seen a 200' tower with three phased dipoles tilted on end. The end of
> one side of the dipole was anchored and insulated at the top of the tower
> and came down like guy cables. About half way down was the feedpoint, were
> an isolated anchor cable continued down the same path to ground (like a guy
> cable). However, the second half of the dipole was pulled back to the base
> of the tower, from the center feedpoint insulator. It looked like an
> arrowboard chevron or a regular dipole that was turned 90 degrees on its
> side. The coax was horizontal back to the tower. There were three of these
> spaced 120 degrees apart and fed with a phasing network to steer it. I
> understand it works great.
>
> So what would you build?
>
> Dino - KX6D
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