"TOP BAND" 160m ANTENNAS I HAVE USED
AFTER 65 ACTIVE YEARS OF HAM RADIO, I am often asked to recommend an antenna for Top Band. Like with most questions, my reply is always "not enough information to recommend anything"!
The answer depends on what the user wants to do with the antenna. Some want to chase DX, some want to work contests, others just want to get on the air and Rag-Chew.
I was an active contester for 56 years, and was interested in DX and NVIS contacts on 160m. As such, I really needed an antenna that was good for working DX, yet also was good for NVIS.
Over the years I have tried all sorts of antennas on Top Band, except for a Full-Wave Loop. I never had enough space for that antenna and in most QTHs I operated from, could not obtain enough height for it to be efficient.
On this page I will show you the various antenna I have tried and describe the advantages and disadvantages I experienced with each.
You will notice that I did not try any of the many really short antennas on this band. Short antennas are relatively worthless unless you are just trying to work strong local stations. I am/was a contester and need a competitive antenna.
The simplest way to begin with any band is to use a Simple Dipole. Hmmm... that's about 260 ft. or 78.8 meters. Plus a little more for the rope to the trees or masts. I only had that much space at my QTH in Oklahoma.
I did have the space a few times at Field Day, but never managed to get the dipole more than about 12m (40 ft.) in the air. It seemed to work fairly well out to a few hundred miles, but was pathetic when trying to work long-haul DX!
I tried Inductive Loaded Short Dipoles but they were very narrow-banded and did not work as well as the full-size dipole.
The solution that worked "OK" was either of the two Space-Saving Dipoles. Both Performance and Bandwidth were about the same as with the Full-Size (straight) Dipole.
In the early 1990s I decided to try a 160m Off-Center-Fed Dipole. Same problem as with the Simple Dipole: "space". Same solution: Space-Saving (bent) installation at home and straight on expeditons where I had more space.
PERFORMANCE was more or less identical to that of the Simple Dipole on the fundamental band. Of course it could also be used on harmonic bands.
TO BE CONTINUED . . .
PATIENCE PLEASE. This stuff takes time!