Louis - If you try to call someone in the same country and they do not hear you, I would not assume they have a receive antenna problem. They could have an 8-circle and simply be listening in the wrong direction for you. The directivity of an 8-circle is astonishing. When I did the Stew Perry from W3LPL last December, I used Frank's beverages as my "omnidirectional" antennas into one ear (or sometimes both ears) because being off just 2 notches in 8-circle direction, dropped even strong signals into the noise.
Amazing. Well-known beverages seemed ominidirectional compared to an 8-circle. Tim N3QE On Tue, Dec 15, 2015 at 7:10 AM, Louis Parascondola via Topband < [email protected]> wrote: > I also am new to the top band. Been a ham since 1967 and I suppose I have > made about 5 contacts on 160 since then. But now that I have decided to > make 160m my new challenge I am hooked. I did know enough by speaking with > a friend that unless I had a beverage for receive I had better just forge > about even getting started. So, he helped me install a beverage. We > strung out about 550 feet of wire. I did not terminate the far end. The > other end goes to the balun and is grounded with a ground rod. I have the > feed line laying on the ground all the way to the shack window where it > rises about 7 feet to go indoors. I made the mistake of thinking the braid > does not pick up noise and raised the feed line to enter the house through > the roof area. So the feedline was raised from the feed point over to the > house roof. BIG MISTAKE! The noise jumped up so high that it was only 2 s > units better than the 55 foot OCF dipole for 160m I had to immediately > return it to the way it wa > s on the ground, In the evening on 160m The OCF at about 55 feet has a > noise level of about S8 to S9 and when I switch to the beverage the noise > is only S1. It is truly amazing how quiet it is compared. I can tell when > I am running DX who is listening on a beverage on their end and who isn't. > Often I can work all over Europe and get all Q5 reports and answers with > just one call. When I try working someone the same country and they do > not come back to my call or anyone else's for that matter I know they > aren't using a beverage. I know for certain that at least 75% of the > contacts I have already made I could have never made without the beverage. > The signals you never know are there come right out of the noise when the > beverage is selected as the rx antenna. I also use the same beverage on 80 > and 40 meters with similar results!! I would have packed up my idea on > playing with 160m if I did not have a beverage. You would never get > anywhere without it in my opinion. S > ure you can make contacts but you will be missing a heck of a lot. I > have done zero scientific tests like WHS, but my ear does not lie to me. I > have heard you K1WHS on 160, good signal into CT. 73 all Lou W1QJ > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Bob Kupps via Topband <[email protected]> > To: Dave Olean <[email protected]>; topband <[email protected]> > Sent: Tue, Dec 15, 2015 1:41 am > Subject: Re: Topband: Noise levels on 160 > > My daytime noise level from the 160m xmit vertical using your settings is > -100 dBm. The S meter on the K3 reads S7 (absolute)... 73 Bob HS0ZIA > From: Dave Olean <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: > Tuesday, December 8, 2015 3:30 AM Subject: Re: Topband: Noise levels on > 160 I am somewhat new to 160 meters. I converted an old VHF tower at my > house to a 160 M 1/4 wave radiator in late 2013 and have been active since > then on a casual basis. Recently I started showing symptoms of the 160 > Disease, and have been looking for ways to improve things. The XYL has > nixed anything big (no more towers) so I am stuck with a single radiator, > but I can still work on the receiving side. I just built up an Africa > beverage (100 degree az) and was happy with the noise level on that > antenna. It seems extremely low and about as good as my Europe beverage. > Recently, I tried measuring each beverage and the vertical antenna to nail > down the noise floor using my K3 and P3 panada > ptor. I wonder if these numbers are good and how they compare with other > setups. For the record, I set the P3 at the narrowest span, 2 kHz. I used > the preamp ON for the beverages and the preamp off for the vertical. I > recorded these levels on late Saturday evening during the ARRL 160 contest, > and then again, the following Monday during the day. I recorded the > following numbers...ANTENNA NOISE LVL DAYTIMEJA 330 deg > -133 -138West 270 deg -125 -130SW > 220 deg -125 -132Africa 100 deg -136 > -144Europe 45 deg -138 -142Vertical Antenna > -115 -123All measurements were taken with the P3 > panadaptor set at 2 kHz span. That is important. K3 preamp is ON. These > numbers taken at night are a moving target. The noise can vary from hour to > hour. I looked across the 2 kHz span of the P3 and averaged what I saw. I > seem to hear reasonably well wi > th the vertical, and in the past used it quite often. Now that I have a > few beverages, I hardly ever listen on the vertical anymore. Both the 220 > and 270 degree beverages suffer from power line noise and are 10 dB noisier > than the wires aimed East. I am thinking about maybe nulling out the power > line noise. I am sure that noise is killing my receive. I guess I should > make a real measurement of my noise floor at a specified bandwidth of the > receiver. That would require more work! I took the easy way and set the P3 > at minimum span and looked at the "grass level". What numbers do others see > on 160? I live in a rural area in Maine near the NH border. I have a > neighbor across the street and another two about 1000 to 1200 ft away. I > think my location is pretty quiet, but I do often see interference that > comes and goes. I always hear two electric fences. One is a single snap > every second or so. The other is a pulsing burst of noise that lasts maybe > 300 ms that repeats every > second or so. There is also a rather broad drifting signal to my NE that > is about 20 kHz wide and drifts around 1820 kHz. It is about 5 dB above the > normal noise. I suspect it is a mile away, but have not found it yet.Dave > K1WHS_________________Topband Reflector Archives - > http://www.contesting.com/_topband _________________Topband Reflector > Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband > _________________ > Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband > _________________ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
