W8TN is BACK on Top Band!

Today, Mike Null, NU8LL, and Eric Mynes, K8OHZ, came to the Hill and pulled up the 160-M Inverted-L. That antenna had not been replaced on the tower when we did the antenna installation of the SteppIR. But today, Mike climbed the tower with Eric as Ground Crew and re-installed the Inverted-L. Mike also removed the gin pole and rope and brought them back up the hill with the roll of Phillystran.

As you can see by the SWR plot of the 160-M Inverted-L on the right, I'm now "back in business" for Top Band. The SWR ranges from 1.45:1 at 1.800 MHz to 2.0:1 at 1.869 MHz. At 1.850 MHz it is 1.72:1 and the lowest SWR is at 1.819 MHz where it is 1.19:1. I would say that is just darn near perfect since I have no series capacitor or other tuning network to do any matching at the base of the antenna.

I guess tomorrow I'll have an early wake-up to try for TX3A on Top Band. I was up at 3:00 a.m. this morning for 2-1/2 hours trying to work them on 30-M when they were S-9 here but nothing! So, hopefully tomorrow morning will bring good luck for me. But, just to see if the antenna was functioning, I took a look at the band and found OE3I operating in the Austrian 160-M Contest. I do NOT have Austria confirmed after sending a Direct QSL 2 years ago. So, I called and worked OE3I with very little trouble. And here's the good news, HE's ON LoTW! YIPPEE! I'm BACK!