Group,
I started the testing last night of a dedicated RX antenna for 160 I
completed yesterday. Could find no activity on the band after sunset here
except some SSB ragchew. Rolled out this morning at 10:20 UTC to hopefully
find some DX targets to test. All that was heard was N7UA working a UA.
Was able to hear the UA for a short time. Then heard him work what sounded
like a FO....didn't get all of it (static) and could not hear the DX at any
point on the compass.
The antenna is a 20' 1/2" Heliax loop at ground level on a rotor with an
I.C.E preamp in the shack. Not really sure the preamp is needed....maybe
only 8 or 10 db tops. Not having a good reference antenna for 160 doesn't
help in the evaluation but I didn't find the loop to hear anything my
Carolina Windom short 80 didn't hear...except I am able to null some man
made interference at times. The Windom won't tune on 160 TX. So I expect
it's far from optimum even for RX on 160. The loop did have a slight S/N
advantage but that depended on the preamp settings.
I expected a larger difference in signal to noise ratio than was realized.
My noise was mostly atmospheric but I did notice for the first time my
computer generating noise at three points on the dial. Shut it down and it
cleaned right up. Static and atmospheric noise was peaking S-5. N7UA was
well above that at 10:45 UTC but had faded down into the noise by 11:45 UTC
just after my sun up.
I hope to hear that this morning was just a bad morning for propagation all
around.
More testing is definitely in order.
Wish I had room for a beverage farm but at this point I do not...that may
change in the next few years though...
Will be looking at the flag as well. No transmit antenna yet....that's
next!
73
Cecil Acuff
K5DL
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