[ADXA] VP8STI 160 Meters - A Wild Night!

Thu Jan 21 09:05:41 EST 2016

Joel,

We appreciate the updates and it is good to see messages on the ADXA list.

I don't work 160 much, but my 130 foot horizontal dipole works fairly well
for transmit when the feedline conductors are tied together and fed against
ground.   I need a receive antenna and my rig has a receive antenna port.
I see receive antenna protectors, but I have not really seen much about
when one is needed.   If I am running 100 watts on 160, what are the
possibilities that I will blow my receiver due to RF on the receive antenna
port?   I assume a relay or other circuit in the rig  removes the antenna
from the circuit when I am transmitting, but I'm not sure.   I can ask the
question on the Kenwood TS-590S reflector, but I knew there was a lot of
knowledge here also.

So - just for educational purposes - does using a separate receive antenna
increase chances of blowing the receiver front end at 100 watts?   At 1 kw?

73,
Dennis, W5RZ

On Thu, Jan 21, 2016 at 6:30 AM, Joel Harrison <w5zn at w5zn.org> wrote:

> It was a wild night on 160 meters last night as VP8STI came of the band
> for the first time.
>
> The night is short on South Sandwich Island. The sunset (SS) is around
> 2243z (4:43 PM local) and the sunrise (SR) is around 0515z (11:15 PM
> local) so a little over six hours of darkness is all and it really doesn't
> get into a very "deep" darkness this time of year. Use DX Atlas or a
> feature in your logging program to see the gray line movement. Our SS in
> Arkansas is around 2325z (5:25 PM local) and it is not too common for us
> to get a peak at that time from another station in darkness. It does
> happen all the time on 80 meters but 160 is a different bird.
>
> Around 0100z (7:00 PM local) VP8STI was working Europe (EU) and worked
> just a couple of U.S. stations in the northeast but then focused solely on
> EU. I did not hear a peep from them listening to the SE (the direct path).
> Not hearing them I decided to switch the RX antennas to the NE to listen
> to the EU pile that was calling and BAM! there was VP8STI booming in about
> 5 dB above my noise floor from the NE !!!! K5UR was experiencing the same
> RX path. This path continued until 0200z when they went QRX for some local
> QRM. When they returned about 10 mins later their signal was much weaker
> until the propagation faded.
>
> About an hour and a half later, around 0330z VP8STI's signal was back
> right at my noise floor, floating in and out and peaking in a range that
> moved from NE through E to SE and then what seem to be rotating through
> that scenario again. About 20 mins or so before their SR, around 0500z,
> the signal peaked to the direct SE heading and remained there until they
> faded into their SR.
>
> Other stations reported the skewed path as well with K4SV and W4ZV
> reporting a peak from the north at their location. The south Texas boys
> were receiving STI's sig from the SE direct path.
>
> Skewed paths are not uncommon and occur on 160 meters at times. As I said,
> 160 meters is a very strange propagation band and some have studied it for
> years. I have a very good friend, Carl Luetzelschwab K9LA, who spends a
> lot of time documenting propagation on 160 meters and other bands as well.
> I highly recommend.....actually, I insist you read his material. It is all
> located on his website, free of charge. URL links don't come through on
> our reflector but just go to K9LA dot US and all the links are on the
> right. He has tons of VERY GOOD STUFF that you should read. Regarding the
> skewed path experienced on 160 meters last night I would direct you to his
> 160 meter link and read his article "Arrival Direction of FT5ZM in NA on
> 160m" from early 2014. FT5ZM's signals from Amsterdam Island were arriving
> via a similar skewed path.
>
> Unless you have some good low band RX antennas you will most likely NOT
> hear VP8SSI on 160 meters. My purpose with this email is to encourage
> those of you that haven't read anything about 160 meter propagation to do
> so and learn a little about it. It is really amazing and when you reach
> the point of actually hearing VP8STI or similar stations and you're having
> that chat with your non-ham buddies that golf all the time and rib you
> about ham radio, just throw out the next hand grenade from your bag -
> "Hey, I received the equivalent of an AM broadcast station, that you
> normally can't hear 50 miles down the road, from the south pole on a
> little station in my hope that I built!!"
>
> Oh yea.....and be sure to remind them about all of the world class guys
> you were in there competing with on the same field!
>
> 73 Joel W5ZN
>
>
> www.w5zn.org
>
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