[OKDXA] Thoughts on 160, kinda long

[k5tt]

Good stuff Clif.  I'm glad to hear you are enjoying the "Real Man's Band".

Jim

----- Original Message -----
From: "Clifton Sikes" <cwsikes@worldnet.att.net>
To: <okdxa@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 2003 3:28 PM
Subject: [OKDXA] Thoughts on 160, kinda long


> My thoughts, now that can be something to ponder, huh? Anyway, after four
> months of pretty dedicated work on 160, I thought I would share what I
have
> seen and heard.
>
> We all know ON4UN's book on low band DX'ing as the ultimate technical
work.
> I have found a couple of others that I would recommend. First is DX'ing on
> the edge, The Thrill of 160 Meters. It is written by K1ZM, and a great
> history of acivity on top band,along with some fantastic nuts and bolts
> articles on antennas for 160. I got more from it than anything I have read
> on the subject. The latest addition to my library is The Antenna
Compendium
> Vol. 7. It has some good articles on antennas, and proved out some of the
> things I was seeing with my own inverted L. Mine is 48 feet vertical, and
> 120 feet semi horizontal, with a series capacitor in the feed point. It
> works!
>
> I had spent three winters using a Carolina Windom 160, and was able to
work
> 21 countries with it. However, I heard lots more who could not hear me.
> Since putting up the L in late September, I'm now up to 50 worked.
Vertical
> does seem to be better than low horizontal. I have heard Bert, K2BA, doing
> quite well with his dipole, but it's up at 100 feet. I can't do that, so
> vertical sounds better for my setup.
>
> The biggest surprise has been that we don't hear Europe very well here in
> Ok. Even the big boys like W5TM have noticed the same thing. I figured
> Europeans would be a dime a dozen, like on other bands. Not so! The other
> surprise has been how easy it has been to work African countries. An
arricle
> in The Compendium #7 explained that phenomenon, due to the design of my
> antenna. One thing that I read in most all DX aricles is, send your call
> once, not over and over. That seems to work! The guys on the other end of
> the pile will pick out a single call and work you while others are sending
> their call 4,5,6 times. Also, matching the sending speed of the operator
on
> the other end is a good thing, besides being polite. I don't particularly
> like working at 15-18 wpm, but it seems to help get through the noise.
> Speaking of noise, I have found that the RF gain control is my best friend
> on the low bands. Cut it back to eliminate noise and give the AGC a break,
> then up the AF gain to improve the signal to noise ratio. Heck, some
nights
> I put in 20dB of attenuation, just to cut the noise. These are just a few
of
> the tricks I have learned, and they might be of some use by others. The
> bottom line is spend time on the band. I have been able to work several
new
> ones in the contests, but many more by just tuning around to see who might
> pop out of the racket. Sorry this ran so long, but I'm having a blast. I
> hope you all do too.
>
> 73, Clif N5UW
>
>
>
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