I agree with others on the IPO on 160 - 40 which defeats the "Tuned" preamp.
I personally don't default to attenuation of any value. It depends on the noise level and the bandwidth. On CW (which is the most common on 160) and a fairly narrow bandwidth, I often use no attenuation whatsoever with my terminated beverages and have worked many DX stations which would not be heard if 18dB of attenuation were selected. Ed N1UR _________________ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband