[OKDXA] DX, on 160

[Jay Bromley]

Hi OKDXA gang and Clifton,

Well I have debated weather or not I should post on this since I do NOT have
DXCC on 160m.  When the QRP bug bit I was well on my way and some day
I will finish it out.  But my long tirade may help someone new so here it
goes.

Clif, if the band conditions hold up you should get around 30 plus countries
per year with your skill level.  I am not sure small RX loops will help on
DX here in the mid-America, but it is worth a try.  They seem to be great
for local contacts because of the smaller capture area.  It might help some
with the Caribbean or South America countries?

I think you have some land that most DXers would die for so I would try some
beverages, even if they are shorter.  If you go this route, build you up a
pole out of 2X4s to measure the wire as you go along the wire route.  In
other words you want to keep the wire equal distance off the ground as you
go over creeks and valleys.  Beverages are an art form like CW, the more you
do the more you learn!  I have seen very long wires do great, smaller ones
(180 to 500 footers ) can be great, and phased ones are in a league of their
own.  Signals on 160m very often don't follow the conventional paths, but
will come in on a different route.  K5OO had/has about 12 of them on top of
a hill near Ozone, AR.  Some of the European signals would come in on a
different wire no where near the direction they were going.  Bottom line is
to read all you can and spend all weekend in the field.  Become the expert
for your location!

Don't like playing with beverages and want to be a bigger gun on 160m?  Then
a four square may be your answer.  Hams that have 4-squares don't seem to
need the beverages and this makes sense because of the directivity of the
array.  This helps out not only on receive but transmit as well.  Now for
casual DXers this may seem extreme, but I have seen many just playing on
160m and ending up with this set up.  I have also seen many quit because
160m DXing is a challenge not easily learned.  The Yankee Clipper Contest
club had some neat information on 4-squares using just one tower at:
http://www.yccc.org/Articles/articles.htm

You mentioned Tom, W8JI, and this is the next comment I wanted to make.  It
is more of a perspective I know DXing 160m from a city lot.  The receiver
can be as important as the antenna.  Tom uses a fully moded Drake C lines.
These have very good filtering and low noise.  The mods are not cheap, but
are well worth the effort.  The specs are legendary and are posted on many
sites on the web.  But most rigs can be made to be better by following Tom's
advice.  Tom has some newer gear and I am sure he has implemented the same
techniques on the new rigs.  Tom's use to have a web site, but seems to be
down at the moment.

For the DXers that use their ears and are toooooo cheap to buy IF filters,
this is an advantage often over looked.  When I first started DXing on 160m,
I thought it was just the elite that had the big antennas that worked DX on
160m.  So one night I kept seeing one spot after another, 5 call land,
dx frequencies, etc, and after going to the spot frequency I still couldn't
hear
my first DX station.  Then I heard some guys with average stations and that
got me to thinking I was doing something wrong.

Since I didn't have a four squares or beverages, I started to play with IF
filtering and lots of it.  How much?  Well my first year on 160m using the
TS-950sdx I started out with one 500 filter and by the end of the season I
added other 500 hz filter in the second IF.  I used my DSP and VBT to
tighten the bandwidth up more.  My noise floor in the city is normally about
S-9!  With all the filtering the noise dropped to around S-1 and guess what,
I started to hear those DX stations I was seeing on the cluster.

My narrow bandwidth loaded sloper also helped on the noise, but I couldn't
move
more that 5 KHz, but who cares I was working DX from 1.830 to 1.835.  This
has been debated many times between KK6MC and I about the worth of a
narrow-band antenna for a city lot.  But I turned Jim Roughly, K5JUC, on to
the design he now has 160m DXCC.  Jim lives a block away from me on a very
small city lot and is one of those guys that doesn't know what a CW filter
is.  Jim
still uses his head, but I think the Irads are better!

When I saw Jim closing in on me I decided to shut feed my tower.  This was a
huge transmitting advantage, but my noise floor rose up again.  So I pulled
the 500 hz filters and installed the 250 hz jobs.  I didn't have to use as
much
DSP/VBT on the Kenwood then and I nearly got back to where I was with the
narrow-band antenna.  How narrow was my ultimate bandwidth?  50 hz.  Yes,
it didn't sound to pretty, but it sure was fun getting a new one using the
rig that
way.  Is was so tight that you could detect the IF was off a little and if a
station
was on 1.831.00 I had to tune to 1.830.95 to1.830.98.  If I tuned much
beyond
that the station was gone!

The time to experiment with all this narrow-band CW is in the summer time.
Have a station reduce his power until you no longer hear him.  Then narrow
up
your receiver till you hear him again.  Then have him go lower and do your
receiver again till you hear him again.  Do this over and over till you lose
him.
Log the settings and you are set for winter time 160m DXing.  While Jim,
K5JUC,
and Mark, K5OO, and I was on a simplex 2m frequency I would have Mark send
while there where 40 to 60 over S-9 summer time static crashes.  Nothing was
heard till I kick in all the filtering.  This was the same techniques I used
to QRP
milliwatt on 1.812.  So again QRP can make you a better DXer, even on 160m,
hihi.  Eavesdroppers on 2m were most impressed!

FYI, I once measured the series resonance of my shut fed tower.  The tower
resonanted well below 1700 KHz and was very popular receiving all the local
broadcast stations around here.  That's very tough on low spec receivers!
Front end
filters can be a 160m DXer best friend in the city.  The TS-950sdx did A-OK
here,
but other rigs needed the attenuator.  Top-loading was used to make a small
tower
look big.

Power has been mention before, so nothing I can add here!  Bigger is truly
better.  Buy the biggest and best you can afford.  I don't think we will see
any QRP 160m DXCCs unless it is from the 4-square folks.  I have learned
never say never and I know it can be done, especially on the east coast with
a great antenna!

Clif you also be on a lot before and after the 160m contests.  I know you
already know most of this, but for the new 160m DXers this infomation
repeated may help?  If conditions are there, an Arkie or Okie DXer should be
able to reel in 20-30 Caribbean/South American countries in a weekend or
two.  A Tex-I-Can may do more? :-)

There are also windows of opportunity that may be on only for certain years,
months, and hours.  I royally screwed up with ZS4TX.  At my location he had
a ten minute window for a week!  He was fairly active, so I thought no
problem I will get him another night!  I can't remember the month, but
seemed to be in the Spring.  I saw the spots and was coping him, but I
didn't strike while the iron was hot.  A week later he was still being
spotted, but no signal.  Next year I heard nothing, but I saw the ZS4TX
spots.
Never wait on 160m, it maybe years before the conditions are right again.
Good advice for DXing in general!

Well Clif you have me wanting to pick up where I left off, so maybe in a
couple of weeks?  But I am 160m amp less right now, so it may be after the
first of the year.  If I just could stop all this QRP stuff for Arkiecon, I
could get back to low band DXing.  But that is just a convenient excuse!
:-)

160m is one of the most rewarding DX experiences I have ever done.  160m
DXers have class and share information not found on other bands.  Now if I
can just get retired to that 40 acres in Heber Springs that Kathy and I just
bought.  By the time we get it paid for I will be too wore out to care,
hihi.

Gud luck, have fun to all OKDXAers!

73 de jay..

> God morning all. I'm learning a little bit on 160, however slowly ;-) Last
> night around 0345-0400Z heard and worked EA8/OH2U and NP4Z. On the other
> hand, I heard W8JI working S58A and a DJ station. Didn't hear a peep out
of
> either one of those. Looks like a receive antenna will be a must. I'm
gonna
> try it the hard way, for a while, but bet I'll be trying to figure out a
RX
> antenna that is horse proof. If you have never tried 160, jump into the
> noise with me. We might learn together.
>
> Clif
>