That was fun.\u00c2\u00a0 Got a chance to really test drive the 160m inverted-L with the new series capacitance matching installed.\u00c2\u00a0 The capacitor switching is not yet wired, but the match is best at about 1845.\u00c2\u00a0 The KAT100 tuner for the K2 is easily able to match the antenna across the CW areas.\u00c2\u00a0 Without the switching in place, the area above 1900 is not usable, but that’s not a problem for ARRL 160m.<\/p>\n
Operating low power into a vertical is a challenge on any band but has always seemed a larger hurdle on 160m.\u00c2\u00a0 It seems like the Inverted-L is playing very well – certainly better than before the matching at the antenna feed point was improved.\u00c2\u00a0 There were a few stations that struggled to hear the peeps from the KazShack, but the percentage of good QSO’s versus “no cpy pse ltr” definitely seems to have improved.<\/p>\n
Operating was limited mostly to early evening.\u00c2\u00a0 Not a lot of DX worked, just a couple of Caribbean stations and an F2 that must have really good ears.\u00c2\u00a0 The Caribbean stations were booming, so they probably had less trouble copying the 100w. Didn’t hang in the shack until the EU sunrise, but the F2 was early.<\/p>\n
Darting in and out of the KazShack Saturday afternoon, low-and-behold, those three or four intrepid operators cq’ing into the teeth of a mostly dead daytime 160m band have pretty darn good signals.\u00c2\u00a0 Short distance regional Q’s, but with low noise conditions a few hundred more stations on the air would make the afternoon on 160m interesting.\u00c2\u00a0 Very easy copy.<\/p>\n
The Good:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n The Bad:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n The Ugly:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The Outcome:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n That was fun.\u00c2 Got a chance to really test drive the 160m inverted-L with the new series capacitance matching installed.\u00c2 The capacitor switching is not yet wired, but the match is best at about 1845.\u00c2 The KAT100 tuner for the K2 is easily able to match the antenna across the CW areas.\u00c2 Without the switching in place, the area above 1900 is not usable, but that’s not a problem for ARRL 160m.<\/p>\n Operating low power into a vertical is a challenge on any band but has always seemed a larger hurdle on 160m.\u00c2 It seems like the Inverted-L is playing very well – certainly better than before the matching at the antenna feed point was improved.\u00c2 There were a few stations that struggled to hear the peeps from the KazShack, but the percentage of good QSO’s versus “no cpy pse ltr” definitely seems to have improved.<\/p>\n Operating was limited mostly to early evening.\u00c2 Not a lot of DX worked, just a couple of Caribbean stations and an F2 that must have really good ears.\u00c2 The Caribbean stations were booming, so they probably had less trouble copying the 100w. Didn’t hang in the shack until the EU sunrise, but the F2 was early.<\/p>\n Darting in and out of the KazShack Saturday afternoon, low-and-behold, those three or four intrepid operators cq’ing into the teeth of a mostly dead daytime 160m band have pretty darn good signals.\u00c2 Short distance regional Q’s, but with low noise conditions a few hundred more stations on the […]<\/p>\n\n
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Station: W4KAZ\r\n\r\nClass: Single Op LP\r\nQTH: NC\r\nOperating Time (hrs): 9\r\n\r\nSummary:\r\nTotal: QSOs = 329 Sections = 51 Countries = 5 Total Score = 37,856\r\n\r\n*\r\n<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"