HF 160m Contacts

Seems there also wasn't a 160m contact posting so thought I'd rectify that too.


With my attempts at running a way too short antenna on 160m I've soldiered on and recently hooked it all up as a 'T' antenna with a long counterpoise.
That seems to be working much better.

All FT8 10 Watts

G0CQZ - England
SP7TF - Poland
ON8DM - Belgium
DL7DJ - Germany
DD2BH - Germany
F4GTB - France
LX1JH - Luxembourg

Huge thanks to LX1JH, Jean-Marie Juchemes for being the only operator to so far confirm a QSO!


Now none of those might seem like impressive 'DX' contacts but with a bit of lawnmower lead in my loft and a steel washing line as a counterpoise along with a homebrew matching unit it's none too bad for 160m.

Just goes to show that even with limited resources you can work 'Top Band' without needing a huge plot to fit an antenna on.

Looking forward to my first SSB probably very NVIS QSO on the band when the situation presents itself. I think some Japanese DX might be a bit too far for my current setup.



All the best,
Victor

Ones i have had countries that is C is confirmed.

Balearic Islands
Belgium
Denmark
England  C
France  C
Germany  C
Ireland  C
Netherlands  C
Spain  C
Switzerland  C

On 20.5mtr of picture hinging ss-wire  and a 5:1 balun.
It's in a V well sort of ??? dogleg from around 4mtr up to around 6mtr.
PSK reporter shows many reports but no contacts.

Well done Alan, that antenna of yours seem to be serving you well.

You seem to have more luck than me with receiving QSO confirmations too.

Just turned the radio on 05.50am
OY9JD on 1.842 ft8 Faroe Islands but he don't confirm in qrz.

Only ever see 2 or 3 stations on in the morning but pskreporter shows my sig reports all over Europe.

Well done both.

I'm looking to throw a wire up some how and use a counterpoise.
Have a CG3000 that supposed to match most things, time to see if it does.

Mike
With this 5:balun i don't need a tuner on many bands 160 being one of them.
Was running a 49:1 with 67ft wire and a coil plus 7 or 8ft of wire to get 80m.
I swapped the balun over keeping the wire and bingo.
I know it's compromised but it works for me.

Much appreciated Mike.  


The CG3000 specs are pretty good so you should be able to match a variety of antenna setups. 
(I think the SGC230 just beats it by having that extra 32uH inductor to hand.)

I think Alan got really lucky with his antenna experiments and I had to build another ATU (a simpler L type with larger values) to finally match the doublet although that got extended to 66 foot too. I tried an 'earthed' approach but was rewarded with lots of noise and in the end the 'T' configuration with a long counterpoise worked out the best.

Alan still has the advantage of his coastal ground plane though.


Best of luck with anything you can come up with Mike and I look forward to either catching you on air or seeing some 160m reports posted.

It's just nice to be able to work that extra band.

Been thinking of topband for a while, can listen with the Hustler and
hear quite well but of course it don't tx at all.
I could run a fairly long wire from the shack up to the chimney and down
to the front of the garden, may be 100feet or so but getting at the chimney
is not going to be easy. There is an old Watpole bracket up there and I may
try and throw a line over it and use that to get to the front garden.
Can run a fairly long counterpoise but may just hook the ant to the Hustler
ground first to see if that would work.

Anyway nice to see you chaps having a bash, that's what it's all about, experimenting.

This might sound daft Mike.
I have put wire over our bungalow i use a pop bottle well a Lucozade bottle half full of water and paracord attached to it and throw that over first then pull wire over with that.
Not sure if you can throw that well but it was just a thought.

Alan Pilot wrote:

This might sound daft Mike.
I have put wire over our bungalow i use a pop bottle well a Lucozade bottle half full of water and paracord attached to it and throw that over first then pull wire over with that.
Not sure if you can throw that well but it was just a thought.

The bracket is up near 25feet and the otherside is about 30feet to the road.
Going to nick the rubber ball thingy that goes in the washing machine.
It has holes in it that I can tie the line, It's quite light but should be able to
chuck it over with some very light nylon line I have. Might take a couple throws
but shouldn't be to hard just have to wait until my sisters car is out of the drive.   

Check the wind direction as well it can help lol.
First time i attempted a throw over the roof i tried it with some thin coax.
Had a coil in my hand and through it but a slight wind coming the other way stopped it mid air. 
Now you couldn't do this if you tried but i managed to get around 6 or 7 loop's round the vent pipe of the boiler and no way was it coming down.
Got a neighbours son on the job he went up and got it ok but he didn't like the trip down again.
It's a bungalow all of 8ft or so to the gutter lol.

Well done Alan. I haven't done anything with this band yet, other than a bit of listening. And even just listening I haven't heard anything that far away. You've done well.

Well done on getting across the pond.

Thanks chaps.
Uploaded my log last night and the bartender don't confirm 

I wouldn't worry Alan with an FT8 QSO being 'confirmation' in itself.

Just bask in the glory that your antenna experimentation has rewarded you with such a contact and something we've yet to achieve.  


(PSKReporter wasn't playing ball last night so didn't get to try 160m on the extended 88 foot doublet. Was worried the 10m performance might be affected but the world lit up during the day with it!  )

PSK always shows me making the trip when i first start on 160m but not for long.
I have tried them in the past but never made it so don't try now.
The contact i did get called me that was a surprise and when i got the ding well 
One day Victor my friend one day soon i hope.

Made my first 160m contacts this evening. No spectacular distance, but I am happy and amazed what I set up radiated anything at all.

FT8 5W
EI8KN - Ireland

FT8 10W
SD5X - Sweden

I've semi-fixed up a late '70s small manual ATU. When it was first in my hands the SO239s and ground connector were very corroded, the ground wire from the air vari cap was disconnected (very blackened solder blob where it once was), and one of the wires on the inductance coil had melted insulation in one spot. Guessing someone had run too high power through it at some point. I cleaned the connectors so that at least some clean metal was showing, fixed the bits inside, and soldered a wire between the SO239 shields and the ground connector as their connections to the chassis looked dubious.

Tried it for the first time tonight. Plugged in my 10m delta loop. It matched it on 30m and I made a couple of euro contacts. Then matched it on 6m, but nothing was happening on there. Got a match on 80m, but only by disconnecting the shield of the coax to the atu, so in affect the antenna became a long wire (or more correctly a short wire) being a run of centre coax (10m approx) - around the loop (10m) - then back down the braid (10m approx). Did the same on 160m, so now an extremely short long wire, no grounding / earth system or counterpoise, and made the above two contacts and were heard by quite a few others according to PSK Reporter.

So there you go, once again, the saying's true... any antenna is better than no antenna

Nice one there Neal.
I love playing around with a length of wire just wish ii had a bigger garden and better mobility/health.
With my setup and auto tuner i get 1.1 on every band but that's just fooling the radio i know that but it does work and i try to forget about the losses it keeps me happy.