John:
It really is amazing that some of this stuff works as well as it does, isn't
it?
That's part of the fun and intrigue of this great hobby of ours.
Tom Behler: KB8TYJ
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Miller" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, December 18, 2010 8:57 AM
Subject: Re: So, I'll do anything to get on 160 meters: Check this out
That's alright, if you saw my antenna, you'd never figure out how and why it
works, where it is and why I don't have problems. I'm thinking heavy snow
will probably be a problem but other than that, and that's not even been
tested so far, but for now, it works. One leg runs across the roof of the
house and some of it isn't even 8 inches away from the roof, heavy snow will
be a problem there I'm thinking. The twin lead I can about reach from the
window I run the feed lines through. So far though, it works alright. Not as
well as the old van gordon g5RV I ran for years but close, and of course the
cobra Ultralite was a lot better but this runs almost corner to corner
across the lot now so the cobra won't fit not to mention I don't know what
I'd do with all that ladder line. I miss the cobra though, oh well my next
QTH, for now I'll deal with this and hope it doesn't break, I don't want to
attract attention to myself if I can help it and this is certainly not a
well made antenna physically. Radiowaves is cheap for a reason. I almost
wonder if the insulated wire helps me though.
----- Original Message -----
From: "tom behler" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, December 18, 2010 7:58 AM
Subject: Re: So, I'll do anything to get on 160 meters: Check this out
> Well, Barb, such are the mysteries, trials, tribulations, and even
> small
> victories at times associated with RF! (smile)
>
> 73 from Tom Behler: KB8TYJ
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Barbara Lombardi" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Saturday, December 18, 2010 12:08 AM
> Subject: Re: So, I'll do anything to get on 160 meters: Check this out
>
>
> Well my antenna has a higher swr on 40 but for some reason, it works hi
> hi.
> Good luck.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> On Behalf Of tom behler
> Sent: Friday, December 17, 2010 9:53 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: So, I'll do anything to get on 160 meters: Check this out
>
> Hi, all.
>
> As some of you know, I have been struggling witha Carolina Windom 160
> Compact installation over the past few weeks, with little success,
> especially when it has come to getting on 160 meters.
>
> The lowest SWR I could get on the band was about 8.0 to 1.
>
> Jim Thompson from RadioWorks (the company who makes the antenna), is
> trying
> to help me troubleshoot the situation, and he has some ideas which a ham
> friend and I are going to try tomorrow, weather permitting.
>
> Anyway, one quick suggestion he made to me was to take a coil of about 100
> feet of RG8X coax, and put it between the transmitter and my Tentech 238A
> manual tuner. He said that this length is about a quarter wave on 160
> meters, and might get my sWR down some.
>
> Well, I did this, and it took the SWR down to about 5 to 1 in the center
> of
> the band--around 1.850 MHZ.
>
> The antenna still wouldn't tune with the auto tuner in the TS480, but it
> actually tuned with the Tentech 238 manual tuner.
>
> I realize that all I was doing was reducing the SWR by introducing loss
> into
> the antenna, but I thought I'd try to make a few contacts anyway, just to
> see if it would be possible.
>
> The Canadian RAC contest is going on this week-end, so I made 2 CW
> contacts
> with no trouble at all. Then, for the heck of it, I went to the SSB
> portion
> of 160, and made a contact with an Ontario station using only 100 watts.
> I
> asked for an honest signal report, and he says I was 10 over S9 into
> Ontario.
>
> This surprised the heck out of me, since I know the antenna can't be that
> efficient, but if nothing else, I can now say I've been on 160 meters for
> the first time in my ham career.
>
> Now, if I can get the antenna itself to perform better, without taking
> such
> crazy measures, I'll be in good shape for the NAQP contests in January.
>
> I know that I have reached this milestone in a rather unorthadox way, but
> I
> just felt the need to share it with my fellow list members.
>
> I'll let you know how things go tomorrow when we get back to some real
> antenna tweaking.
>
> 73 from Tom Behler: KB8TYJ, Big Rapids, MI
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