[FARC] 160m antenna

[Dick, WN3R]

Ain’t ham radio wonderful?

Helpers today were Andrew, AC6WI, my next door neighbor, and Mark Thomas, a
teenager with his mom (and we really needed her help, too).  Mark and his
dad, George, have a renewed interest in ham radio and read about yours truly
in the current issue of “Elegant Living” magazine which is published by
Frederick-News Post 4 times a year.

I tested the antenna by looking for different states during the 160m contest
tonight.  I would first call with ½ watt and then increase a watt or 2 at a
time until I made a contact.  Here are the results after a little bit of
operating time.

½ watt or less: MD NJ PA CT ON NH NJ VA GA NC
1 watts: GA ON
2 watts: ME
3 watts: NY IN
5 watts: FL IL MI OH 
20 watts: IA (I really got tired calling with only 5 watts)

The credit for these amazing contacts always belongs to the other station. I
really appreciated how hard some operators had to work to get my info right.

We ran out of time getting this antenna up.  Center is up at 100’; one end
is at 65 feet and the other end is at 20’.  At this rate I may not bother
raising the low end. SWR at 1.9 MHz is 2.36 and just 1.82 at 1.800 MHz.
Center point is 1.835 where it is 1.14:1. 

I currently have dipoles for 20, 80, and 160.  The lower 2-element SteppIR
works OK on 17m but I can’t rotate it. More antennas will go up when the
weather gets bad again.

73, Dick