[TowerTalk] 160 Transmission Line ANT

[Gene Bigham]

I braved the cold and 10 inch snow fall here this weekend and started erecting the 160 meter transmission line antenna described by Rappaport N9NB in the May 1985 CQ article recently posted on this forum.  Thank you to who ever put this link up.  I have the shorted wire run to my tower at about the 9 foot high level and down the tower leg to the ground rod and radial field under the tower using insulated wire.  The open wire goes out to a small tree then to the back fence where it drops to about the 6 foot level along the wooden fence top across the back yard making a lazy L.  That is when I got too cold and just dropped the 500 foot spool of wire on the ground and came in.  The rig's internal tuner will load it but it is far from resonate yet.  That will be the next step to cut the open end off around the 115 foot mark and then put the analyzer on it and start pruning for resonance.  So far, I can copy WWV at 2.5MHz , 5.0Mhz, 10Mhz with strong signals as it stands now.  Have not heard any amateur signals yet but have not tuned around much either.  Been calling CQ on psk31 at 1.807 so time will tell if I make any contacts.
Again thanks to the one who posted this article earlier on this group, I have never had any antenna for 160 to date, this may be the one.  Hope springs eternal.
Gene Bigham KB0GU