[160m] Working DX on 160 during the warmer months

[Tom W8JI]

> I have an MFJ-1025, which I was thinking of using to try 
> and reduce
> the QRN from distant lightning storms in North America, 
> hoping to hear
> weak DX. Perhaps use the Inverted-L Tx antenna as the 
> noise antenna,
> and the Beverages as the signal antennas, input to the 
> MFJ-1025?
> However, what I've read seems to imply that that would be 
> a waste of
> time. (Would it?)
>
> Or, are staggered and phased Beverages/BOGs a better way? 
> Or, does one
> simply wait for good conditions? Perhaps summertime could 
> use a
> different RX antenna than the Beverage. Maybe not.
>
> Are we just going through a period of bad spring QRN, and 
> it will get
> better in the summer?


Hi Mike,

You'll find mostly noise from now until fall, although there 
will be some quiet days. Mornings are less of a problem 
because thunderstorms go through a minimum early in the 
morning.

The real key to reducing noise is nulling a wide area with a 
very wide null, and hoping the storms are all in that area. 
You can hear how very sharp antennas with wide null areas 
work by listening to these sound files:

http://www.w8ji.com/dx_sound_files.htm

The patterns of these antennas are here:

http://www.w8ji.com/w8ji_rx_ants.htm

The 1025 will work but it requires antenna spacings that 
form a wide deep null.

Nothing else works besides having the narrowest possible 
pattern, which means the widest area of null possible.

73 Tom