HFU HF Underground
General Category => Amateur Radio => Topic started by: Matt285 on November 04, 2019, 0012 UTC
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Wanted to get some feedback on those who have worked 160 Meters. I've never worked stations lower than the CW portion of 80 meters. Thanks
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My 670 ft sky loop loads up nicely on 160m ;D
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The first article I read about those loops was in "73 Mag" and called "What's The Scoop On The Lazy Loop". That was at least 15-20 years ago. It was an easy up design for 160 and 80/75 meters and it worked like charm. A couple of issues later they followed it up with tests from 10 to 40. It was a killer on 40, but from 30/20 on down it might as well have been a long wire as far as tx'ing. It was a great all band receive antenna.
I miss ol' Wayne, he once had a writer put a light bulb on a 4"x4" post to prove the old adage, "I can talk dx through a light bulb". They did, but it's hard to tell how much power they were running into it.
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That matches my experience, it is fine for rx everywhere but only loads up on 160/80/40m. I assume a smaller one would load up on the higher bands, but what's the fun in that?
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I suspect that on the higher bands the multiple wl of wire creates crazy peaks and nulls that are all going to be frequency dependent of course.
Case in point, I had mere 2wl 10m horiz wire up 1wl and the local guys in the peaks had me s9 plus, while a guy 2 blocks away from him couldn't even tell I was there, these peaks and nulls are that sharp. The more wl of wire the more radical and numerous the peaks/nulls and no one will hear you unless they're lucky enough to be in a peak. A gigantor loop is going to have crazy peaks and nulls going everywhere on the higher bands, model yours with nec or similar and see if any dx is in the lucky regions.
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That's what the gang at '73 found out, Josh.
They originally built it for 160/80 but wanted check it on the other bands. As it was only about 12-15 ft. up in places, they started getting some odd ground reactance around 20 meters. It worked, sort of, but a regular dipole or "V" ate it up for tx'ing on 20 and above.
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That matches my experience, it is fine for rx everywhere but only loads up on 160/80/40m. I assume a smaller one would load up on the higher bands, but what's the fun in that?
I think you answer your own question there, at least once we're experiencing some solar activity again.
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If you've the room, a rhombic (more or less a loaded loop) is a fine directional antenna.