Hi Wes,
Once you try a Beverage, you'll realize that those antennas weren't hearing
the weak ones that called you. ;-) See
http://www.w0btu.com/Beverage_antennas.html.
73, Mike
www.w0btu.com
On Sat, Dec 22, 2018, 8:05 AM Wes Stewart <wes_n7ws@triconet.org> wrote:
> Although licensed for 60 years I'm a relative newby on topband. (I did
> work VE7
> in 1959 but that's another story). I decided to semi-seriously take up
> the band
> to acquire my 9th DXCC band award.
>
> As I've described before, pardon the redundancy, I worked my first 70
> entities
> using an inverted-vee dipole with the apex at about 45 feet and the ends
> down
> around six feet. Of course conventional wisdom says that this couldn't
> possibly
> work for anything but local contacts. A year ago, I replaced the dipole
> with an
> inverted-L, 55 feet vertical, the rest horizontal, over a skimpy radial
> field of
> about (so far) 20 insulated radials each 55 feet long laying on the desert
> dirt. I both transmit and receive on this antenna, as I did the dipole
> before
> it. I've since worked 40+ stations, completing DXCC plus a few.
>
> Perhaps I'm blessed with a relatively quiet location, although unlike some
> I'm
> not miles from civilization, but not in a subdivision either. I have made
> zero
> effort to silence noise sources in my house, but do work with the local
> co-op
> power utility to silence obvious noise sources. (Their sleuth is a ham)
> Although I'm considering an RX-only antenna, and it might be eyeopening,
> I'm not
> yet convinced of that. Anything I would use on RX would probably have a
> broad
> peak and get its noise rejection from the rear.
>
> Examining where most of the unworked DX is from here (EU, ME and central
> AS) the
> paths are mostly over the (noisy) continental land mass of NA (and the
> polar
> region) at my SS or early evening. The null of any RX antenna pointing at
> these
> areas would be looking at the sunlit Pacific Ocean. At my SR, the
> converse
> would be true.
>
> So all things considered, using only 500W (10dB too few according to one
> of my
> friends), I already hear as well as I'm heard. My bigger obstacle is QRM
> from
> the east. Nevertheless, I'm willing to try an RX antenna, if I can be
> convinced
> it will be of benefit, so I'm open to suggestions.
>
> Wes N7WS
>
>
>
>
> On 12/19/2018 7:13 AM, Rob Atkinson wrote:
> > If your inverted L is any good at all it will suck as a receiving
> > antenna. This is one of the key things to accept about medium wave
> > but many casual 160 m. operators can't wrap their heads around it. A
> > flame throwing tx antenna will probably have a completely unacceptable
> > noise level on receive. Tx/rx reciprocity works on HF but not as well
> > on medum wave. Separate rx antenna(s) are mandatory. A
> > significant irritant on 160 are the operators with poor antennas that
> > hear great, therefore they expect to be heard equally well, and can't
> > be made to believe they are piss weak when they transmit.
> >
> > Rob
> > K5UJ
>
>
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