There's been a thread on the Reflector concerning working DX on 160 with
less than optimum resources. Some folks seem disheartened faced with the
successes of the "Big Guns." I don't think they should be. They can have just
as much fun....maybe more.
I was first intrigued by the challenge of 160 at 13, and I've been active
on the band for nearly 50 years. I think I've used every possible range of
equipment and resources over that time. My first out of country contact was
made using a pair of 6L6's (those are tubes - 25 watts input) for
transmitting and an old-time parlor console radio with "short-wave" bands. I
used an AC-DC kitchen radio's HET oscillator to beat with the incoming CW to
be able to read it. My 130 ft longwire was no more than 25 ft high. It was a
kick, and W1BB mentioned the contact in his Bulletin! I tried everything I
could, and it all worked, after a fashion. Sometime later, and for about 25
years, when I had plenty of resources (and space), I used some big antennas
and equipment on 160. At a time when they were rare, I had a quarter wave
vertical, (10 ft. dia. "caged" folded monopole 130 ft. tall) over 12,000 ft
of #12 radials. There were 3000ft. beverages to the west and south and a
two-wire 550 footer aimed at Europe. Plus I had far separated dipoles, delta
loops, shielded loops, etc., etc. For a part of that period we had only a 25
KC segment on 160 with severe power restrictions. We worked California
"crossband" from Illinois! When they opened the band and allowed power I
used a 3-1000 full bore. Even so, I remember that on some of our first few
trips to San Andres (HK0) we ran phone patches for islanders on 160 via an
inner city Chicago station that ran a Heathkit single-bander to a 40 ft. top
(coil) loaded vertical on a 50 ft lot!
Altho I wasn't an avid DX chaser, I worked about 150 countries on 160
during that time and some of them haven't been heard in the US in many a
year. It was fun but with the big setup, I expected to work them.
Thirteen years ago I took early retirement and moved to the "low-rent"
tropics, near the mouth of the Rio Grande outside Harlingen, TX. We (I and
my wife, WB9NUL) vowed to simplify our lives and, for radio, that meant no
hi-voltage in the shack, no monster amps, and all antennas contained on our
suburban lot. We put up a 160 full wave horizontal loop, 50ft. above the
ground, purportedly as a receiving antenna for 160 and a utility antenna for
the higher bands. We brought one 64 ft. Spaulding tower from Illinois and
planned to put a triband beam on it and use it a a top loaded vertical for
160-80. We sold the other towers and our big amps.
The loop heard well, and unexpectedly, the DX heard me well, using it to
transmit on 160. My wife was so happy with the loop on the higher bands, she
sold her beam and rotator. So, for twelve years, I have been using the h
orizontal loop and a 500 watt solid state amp. As a casual DX'er on 160, I
have worked about 100 different JA's, lots of VK's & ZL's, G's, UP1, UR2, OH,
SM, YU, HB, UA1, DJ, XF4, HP, KH6, CT, CU, J6, PJ2, PY, P40, VP5, GW3, EA6,
HC8, XE, HI, KP2, TI2, YV, KL7, T32, AH1, C0, PA, VR6B, ZF, HR, YS, I, OK,
FM5, F6, VP2M, 9Y4, J3, VP2E, KV4, V3, HK5, HK0, FG5, P4, FO0, K5K, FY5, A35,
C6, J7, 5C8, V2, OM, 9A2, S54, HA,OZ, V73,TI9, 5W0, EA3, EA8, KH0, KG4, 5U1,
T48, DU9, XR0, HZ, 4X4, JD and others. It's REALLY fun 'cuz I don't expect it
so much.
BTW, about a year and a half ago I finally put up the tower we brought down
here. At first it was top-loaded resonant on 160 with elevated radials, then
as an 82 ft base tuned vertical with 40 ground radials. Surprisingly to me,
the horizontal loop beats the vertical 90% of the time, receive and transmit.
There goes another myth.
We hear lots of stories these days of the big station layouts, monster
antenna setups, operators with so many beverages or arrays that they're able
to discern the direction of incoming signals via skewed paths, and
pronouncements from gurus about "the only antennas that will work DX on 160."
This is all well and good, but should be received as interesting input, not
discouragement (and not gospel) for the average suburbanite. At least for
me, having been up and down the ladder of resources I can or am willing to
devote to 160 DX, I'm having more fun doing it with less. After all, this is
called AMATEUR radio. I don't even know what my country total is and have
never turned in cards. But, I know that if I had 300.....that fact plus
$5.00 would get me a cup of coffee almost anywhere.....and not much else.
Have a ball with what you can muster.
73's and Best DX, Barry, W9UCW
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