[160m] 160m Counterpoise / Most Distant Contact

[Brian Webb]

Good Afternoon:

Last weekend I added a 100 foot wire to my existing counterpoise. I ran it
from my ground rod, around the bottom of the house, and up toward the
street. My counterpoise now consist of the following wires:

Length
(feet)	Depth			Comments
------	----------
----------------------------------------------

45		Surface		Runs along bottom of exterior house wall

50		1-inch		Buried in lawn

85		1-inch		Runs along backyard perimeter

100		Surface		New. Runs along bottom of exterior house
wall

Adding the 100-foot wire had three effects:

Previously, I had to do a bit of work to get a good match (1.3:1 SWR) at the
bottom of the band. Now, I can easily get a 1.0:1 match there.

After I added the new wire, my ANC-4 noise canceller was more effective at
nulling background QRM.

Finally, it seems like my 160m noise floor may have gone down an S-unit or
so.

My antenna is an improvised 152-foot end-fed wire, up 12-feet, within a 50 x
50-foot backyard.

Initial reports indicate that adding the 100-foot counterpoise wire did not
improve my transmit signal.

This morning I had a pleasant surprise. At 1302 UTC on 1815.0 KHz I worked
W8TE via CW. My power was 100-watts. I'm in southern California and he's in
Michigan! He was 599 by the way. That's my most distant 160m contact thus
far.

Regards,

Brian, KD6NRP