There is a small correction necessary - see the text highlighted in CAPITALS below. Unfortunately, living relatively close to the equator, there is very little DX signal propagation on 160m after sunrise/before sunset (only about +15 minutes/- 15 minutes) and this seems high angle.
------------------------------------------------------- G'day Here is some encouragement for those of you who are thinking of trying the K2AV folded counterpoise. Back in January my Kenpro KR400 rotator finally gave out after about 18 years of misuse (which included turning a 40-10m homebrewed 2-element quad), resulting in a total rebuild of the VK6VZ antenna system. For the last 17 years or so, I've mainly used inverted-vee and inverted-U type dipole antennas on 160m, as much experimentation with Marconi shortened vertical and inverted-L antennas had been very disappointing. The best of the antennas, a Marconi-T with a 66-foot vertical section over about 30 60-foot to 100- foot radials, had proved relatively ineffective in comparison to an inverted vee dipole at 90', with the former usually two 'S' points down on the dipole to stations in Europe and the USA. Having read about the K2AV folded counterpoise, which I could mount along one side of the half acre block here, I decided to (once again) try a Marconi antenna. With the counterpoise in this position, I put up a 3/8 wave inverted-L antenna with a 100-foot vertical section (the antenna is 100-foot up, 100-foot out, similar to that used by K2AV). So far the results with the 3/8 wave inverted-L (tuned via a series capacitor to get rid of the inductive reactance) and the folded counterpoise, fed via K2AV's isolation transformer balun (I bought the commercial Balun Designs one) have been startling to say the least. For the first time with a Marconi antenna from this location, I can work just about anything I can hear with similar reports, the feeder/common mode isolation is such that I have virtually no pick-up of the humungous amounts of noise generating devices in the VK6VZ household through which the feeder passes and the antenna is good on local ground wave signals, high-angle DX signals right on sunset/sunrise AND ON LOWER ANGLE DX WELL AFTER SUNSET/WELL BEFORE SUNRISE. Having a 100-foot rather than a 66 foot vertical section is clearly a big help in the performance of this antenna - and the only reason I have this nice large vertical section is because of being able to site the antenna in a position where it would have been impossible to put down a radial field. The previous 12-year old radial field (hopefully still about 75 per cent intact) lies about halfway along the horizontal part of the inverted-L antenna and is probably helping the signal. However, by itself, it never worked anything like as good as the folded counterpoise (and its isolation transformer). A big 'thank you' goes to Guy K2AV and Jack W0UCE for developing the FCP system and for their advice in helping me get the antenna system going. I owe you blokes a beer! Vy 73 Steve, VK6VZ _______________________________________________ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK