What antennas are currently up for 80 and 160 ?
Dennis K7BV made these observations after operating as VP5M in the 2004 ARRL DX CW contest. “There is a 80 meter rotatable dipole that is now in a fixed position on the tower with the two 3el 10 meter antennas. It has relay switching for the different portions of the band, and the switiching worked perfectly. It is a quiet antenna and performed very well for me to the USA and VE. There is also a wire dipole for 80 that might have performed even better because it is full-size. It is cut for phone, though, and I had no time to mess with it before the contest started. I did note that it ‘heard’ quite well although it seemed to pick up more local manmade noise than the rotary. For 160, I used what is referred to as the ‘fence line 160 dipole’. This very low dipole performs incredibly well – at least across the NA and SA. I did just a little DXing outside the contest with it and it seemed to play fine to Europe. There are sufficient towers and space that a higher dipole or Inverted Vee coul
