[ADXA] DXing 160m from city lot

Tue Oct 6 22:24:50 EDT 2020

HI All,

A few days ago there was mention of 160m DXCC from a city lot.  Pat W5VY mentioned the noise problem being in the city and it is a huge problem.  Getting worse all the time including out in the country!        

For what it is worth DXCC on 160 is doable on a city lot.  Interesting, at times challenging, but very satisfying in the end!  Two of us from Fort Smith managed DXCC on 160m from a city lot using mainly loaded slopers up around 50 feet or less!.  K5JUC  Jim, got his 160m DXCC first.   Let me tell you those were small city lots, hi.  Since Jimmy and I lived within a block or two of each other, we would QRM each other adding to the challenge.  Receivers back then were primitive by today’s standards!  It took me about another 10 years to finish DXCC on the top band.  More on that down below.

My first year was fairly easy, got around 30 new ones on CW with the loaded sloper.  Then I went to shunt fed tower with a pretty good ground system and top loading.  The shunt fed tower gained me another 40 worked on top of the original 30.  The main problem, as Pat W5VY noted, was noise.  Because of the narrow bandwidth of the loaded sloper noise didn’t seem as bad at the receiver.  When I went to the shunt fed tower the noise went way up using the same receive bandwidth!  At that time I was using Dual 500 Hz Inrad filters.  With the new shunt fed tower I quickly changed to dual 250 Hz filters.  That put me back to the same noise floor I had with the loaded sloper.  To be clear, the noise floor didn’t really change, but things like filtering made noise appear to be lower while focusing more on the DX station through the noise.  If one had spectrum analyzer looking at the noise floor, nothing would have changed much between the two antennas.  Plus I am sure the sloper had some directivity compared to the shunt fed tower.  In the end, after the dual 250 Hz filters I narrowed the receiver up even more.  Many times going under 100 Hz for filtering.  Tons of noise and hours listening with headphones.  Now all this was on CW and filtering was everything without a good receiving antenna system like beverage.  With today’s current FT modes filtering at the radio isn’t such a big deal!  

The biggest thing I did wrong, was not staying committed and finishing off the 160m award when I was on a roll.  Then I sold the house with the shunt fed tower.  ☹  After that, then came low dipoles at the new QTH and those just didn’t cut the muster for 160m DX!  Still I kept slugging it out when I could with a ladder line doublet.  I would get one here and there with the low doublet antenna.  Getting paper cards to confirm the contacts was also a challenge as LOTW was just starting up around that same time period.  

Plus during those first two years of top band DXing I just assumed DX would always be there every winter season, big mistake!!  I don’t mean the DX expeditions weren’t on the air, but propagation was gone or more like it moved!  It was so weird, the next few years there was NO prop into my area.  It was like it shifted over a few states or counties.  The Texans and Okie’s were tearing up the DX that I couldn’t hear!  They report the same thing when I was working DX they couldn’t hear a few years earlier!  The prop just wasn’t there and not for a day, not for a month, but the whole year/years.  So if you hearing DX on 160m, get busy!  I’ve heard bands like 160m seem to be better during the lowest part of the solar cycle.  I don’t really know or could tell since 160m back then is sort of like 6m now, in that band is evolving with new stations and gear.  

Like I mentioned above, all this was on CW, but there were a few exceptions on SSB.  Digital was rare back then, my how times have changed!  I haven’t added to my total on 160 in a long time.  No 160m antenna up currently at this QTH, but with modes like FT8 that should make getting another 100 worked should be fairly easy as long as I put up some sort of vertical polarization antenna.  In addition to DXing the top band, I just love to hang out there on AM mode and rag-chew.  You either learn to love 160m or in some cases learn to hate it and move on.  

I am by no means an expert on 160m.  Just showing what can be done from a city lot if one wants to push it.  We do have some real heavy hitters on 160m like K5UR, W5ZN, etc.  Right here in Arkansas some of the world’s best experts on the top band.  Many others I am sure are great top band Elmer’s within our group!  Guys like San K5YY being in the first hundred to get the DXCC 160 award must have been thrilling!  

If you currently have a low slung dipole up, don’t give up.  Things like loading the feedline of a dipole to turn it into top loaded vertical or inverted L works!  Also we now have JT modes like FT8 in the toolbox.  I did some testing a few years ago with a German station I knew had a good setup.  I don’t remember what JT mode I was using at the time, but I kept increasing the power until the German station gave me a report.  Finally at 1500 watts he came back with a very low S/N report, like -24!  Antenna I was using was 160m doublet up at 50 feet.  I gave him a -10 if I remember right.  One never knows about the power issue on the other end, but I remember his antenna was a vertical.  It is all about the take off angle or lack thereof.   So with FT8, a good amount of power, and a vertical antenna of any kind, DXCC should be possible on the top band.  Probably within a year or two!  One could probably could do it barefoot or even QRP if you lived on the east coast.  

Also in the toolbox is the Reverse Beacon Network (RBN), PSK reporter, DXMaps, etc.  If you are wanting to test your antenna to see how you are getting out.  Make a few CQ’s or just make a contact or two.  Then go see how far you signal was received and the signal strength being reported there.  I don’t know how many times I got into Europe, while another local station didn’t.  They were usually running a low OCF or dipole antenna. To make horizontal wire an effective DX antenna one would need to have them up 100 feet in the air or more on 160m!  More tools like terrain analysis is available if one is interested.  

You know I don’t remember it being a super big deal when I achieved DXCC on other bands or modes.  Don’t get me wrong I am always tickled once I cross a new milestone, but 160m DXCC was very nice award.  It was special maybe because it wasn’t so easy to finish off!  I do remember proudly hanging that certificate  on the wall.  😊

73 de w5jay/jay..  

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