Hey guys,
I’ve taken a shine to nighttime winter SOTAs, but one beast has escaped me so far: 160m. Do you guys have any ideas for a SOTA-friendly 160m antenna? I’m thinking an inverted-L could work but I’m open to suggestions.
Thanks,
Nick/K1MAZ
In reply to K1MAZ:
Hi Nick,
John G4YSS is seen on 160m from lots of his winter summit activations. John uses a dipole loading system designed by himself - he shared the details in a SOTAwatch post back in March - scroll to the bottom of the thread -
http://sotawatch.org/reflector.php?topic=6622#
I have replicated John’s design and I tested it just over a week ago - I can confirm that the system does seem to work well, although further experience is needed before I really get to grips with it. I found the bandwidth is quite narrow, as to be expected, but this did not present a problem as the antenna can be tuned to where is the band you want to operate.
73, Colin, M0CGH
In reply to M0CGH:
It is worth mentioning that I have worked John a few times on 160 m SSB using just a 102 ft doublet that started its life as a G5RV but now has 300 ohm ribbon all the way to the ATU. The antenna is 25 feet high at the centre and 20 feet high at the ends. Not a classic 160 metre antenna but it gets me contacts despite the very high local noise level, and works over the whole band. It would work for portable but has a weight penalty in that you need a tuner.
73
Brian
In reply to K1MAZ:
Hi Nick,
my last two activations were on 160m.
I am using LW 52m with 10.4m radial.
The antenna is mostly in inverted L
shape, with the vertical section about
6 to 7 m above the ground. I am using
the KX3 TRX with ATU, the tuner handles
this antenna well ( 1:1.2 SWR ).
Today I worked 22 QSO’s with MDX some
1800 km.
73’s Dan / OK1DIG
On my SSB SOTA Top Band activations I have used so far:
- 6m fishing pole + base loading coil + 3x 20m counterpoise wires
- 40-80m link dipole with loading coils at the links; feedpoint at 8m
73, Peter - ON4UP