160m

[Sonwatcher]

Just made my first 2 contacts on 160m. I had never been able to tune 160 before with my Windom but I recently moved it and decided to give it a try tonight and it worked !

 

[sp5it]

Congratulations. Working on topband is fun and challenge.
MIke

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

Good stuff Ron. I rarely even try 160m due to antenna issues here. It's hard to get a decent 160m antenna unless you have the height to support something. I may try getting a wire up thru/over the trees behind the house this winter and give that a shot. I have a potato cannon all ready to fire a line over the 60+ foot high oaks.

 

[packrat]

It would be great to have oak trees. I have a lot of 100 + foot trees on my lot, but they are all Pine Trees!

Congrats on the 160m contact.


PR

 

[Highlander_821]

Are feeding your Windom against a good rf ground?

 

[Sonwatcher]

I'm not having any RF issues. I do have a 1:1 Ugly Balun installed that eliminated stray RF. One thing I do want to do that gives me a problem is make the wire more conducive for 160m by making it longer. It is not designed for 160m even though after moving the wire from 7ft off the ground to around 20ft and away from objects I was able to tune with the tuner. 160m was the only band I had a problem trying to tune. The other bands I use the wire for tune up great. I am thinking of making a 1/2 wave dipole for 160m and use the Windom for 75m as I was told the 160 dipole will not tune 75 but is great for the other bands. How is your mystery antenna working for you ? Have you used the Windom ?

 

[Highlander_821]

I'm not having any RF issues. I do have a 1:1 Ugly Balun installed that eliminated stray RF. One thing I do want to do that gives me a problem is make the wire more conducive for 160m by making it longer. It is not designed for 160m even though after moving the wire from 7ft off the ground to around 20ft and away from objects I was able to tune with the tuner. 160m was the only band I had a problem trying to tune. The other bands I use the wire for tune up great. I am thinking of making a 1/2 wave dipole for 160m and use the Windom for 75m as I was told the 160 dipole will not tune 75 but is great for the other bands. How is your mystery antenna working for you ? Have you used the Windom ?

I built a Windom (or OCFD), but never put it up. The W5GI is kicking butt--- I had a contact on 40 meters into Estonia the other day on it!

I read somewhere I think about using an 80 meter Windom on 160 worked well if you fed it with a single wire feed and against a good ground. Or maybe that was the W5GI. I can't remember.

 

[Sonwatcher]

Good deal on the contact and antenna David ! I just totally changed my antenna. LOL ! I took down the Windom and converted to an 80m dipole. I just made contact with a Georgia station on 40m and a nice Florida contact on 20m. I had a strong 5/8 signal into Florida. I think I'll play around with this dipole and see how it works.

 

[Highlander_821]

Good deal on the contact and antenna David ! I just totally changed my antenna. LOL ! I took down the Windom and converted to an 80m dipole. I just made contact with a Georgia station on 40m and a nice Florida contact on 20m. I had a strong 5/8 signal into Florida. I think I'll play around with this dipole and see how it works.

Are you feeding this new dipole with coax or ladder/twinlead?

 

[Sonwatcher]

Same feedline.Coax with Ugly Balun.