40 or 75 which way do I go.

[Knightt150]

Hi Guys: I get on 7295kc in the afternoon and get very few contacts then I move to 7160kc no AM activity there or no one comes back to me. I called CQ heavy metel from 5:30 cst till 8pm sct still no contacts, except for my neighbor AMer. I only have room for a 40 to 75m ant, so do I tear down the 40 and put up the 75 or just stay on 40m, or do I have RF BO. (VOTE)

John W9BFO

[N2DTS]

Put up something that works on 80 and 40, most activity is on 80 untill the sunspots come back.

Brett

[ka1bwo]

John,

Put up a dipole with as much heigth and wire as you can fit. Feed it with open wire line (450 ohm window line is OK) use a link coupled tuner and
work all the HF bands very Efficiently not just 75 & 40 meters ..........you will never look back!!!!

Joe

[Mike/W8BAC]

If your using a dipole John, just add a 75 meter dipole to the same feed point. This fan setup will work great, I've used it for years and you'll have both of your favorite bands.

I'm assuming your antenna is a dipole here. What exactly are you using? Coax? Balun? Tuner? Maybe it's something else altogether but I'm sure you'll find a great working solution here.

Mike

[W2VW]

40 isn't working like it used to. It might come back but even 75 is better where I live.

[ke7trp]

Try 7290 or 7293.

In AZ, We run 7293 almost every day AM around 11 to 1PM AZ time.  We had 6 guys on today. 

Day time AM, 40 meters.  Evening into the night.. 80 meters. 

I agree.  Put up a 75 meter dipole with ladder line to a Johnson or other balanced tuner. Then you can work 80,40 and 20 am with good effeciency.


C

[WA3VJB]

Having just gotten back on 80m after nearly a year off the band, I have to say it matches my operating better than 40m.  Maybe you can help decide for yourself, John, by considering when are you most likely to have some radio time.

Looks like you've got afternoons into early evening.  In my 200-400 mile propagation zone, 80 meters,  not 40, would match this time of day.

Over the summer I was exclusively on 40m.  Propagation matched my weekend radio time of mid-morning through mid-afternoon.

I also like the fan dipole idea Mike/BAC has pointed out. One more investment of labor, and you've got both bands to play with.

[W1GFH]

Or if the Illinois winter weather is too daunting for extensive antenna work, add 30 feet of wire on each end of your 40M dipole with clip leads. You can droop or zig zag the added-on ends to fit your lot. It's a trashy, but very effective temporary solution.

[Mike/W8BAC]

Joe,

That's a simple and sensible fix. I can visualize a pulley and weight at the ends of the extended dipole and ropes hanging from the insulators between the 40 meter dipole ends and the 80 meter extensions. Pull the insulator down and clip the extensions in line. I wouldn't want to mess with that often but it would get you on the air fast. Folding the 80 meter extensions a bit wouldn't hurt your signal that much either. Your not going to start any DX pileup's but it will work.

At the end of the day my favorite choice would be 600 ohm balanced fed doublet and a Johnson (or equivalent) KW link coupled tuner. Second choice would be a coax fed fan dipole but both might have to wait till spring. For now the dipole extensions sound great. Again, I'm assuming his antenna is a dipole.

Mike

[N2DTS]

80 meters is great in the morning, and late afternoon.
In the middle of the day, it craps out but local stuff can still be worked.
At night its a zoo...

40 meters (7290) is wildly variable up to about 2pm when the broadcast stuff comes in, with some stations not able to hear each other,  rapid fade aways, etc.
But when the band is open, 25 watts will do the Eastern US and into Canada with a strapping signal!

Not sure why, but 40 meters seems to have more guys running odd equipment than any other band, which makes for interesting qso's.

You need 80 and 40 meters, as the sunspot cycle swings around, activity switches between those bands at times, and something is almost always open.

Open wire line and a tuner works great, or if you dont want to tune, two dipoles work great.
A 40 meter dipole should be easy to do, and adding some coils to shorten an antenna a little does not hurt much.
I had about 90 feet between a tree and a 40 foot mast on the side of the garage, and put up an 80 meter dipole with some B+W coil stock in it, about 3/4 the way out from center. It worked fine.

Brett

[KX5JT]

80 meters is great in the morning, and late afternoon.
In the middle of the day, it craps out but local stuff can still be worked.
At night its a zoo...

.................................

Brett

I've found solace in the early evenings down below 3.800, typically on 3.725.  I've had some nice qso's there after calling cq.  Sometimes it takes a few rounds of calling and listening.  It's usually free of qrm.  Certainly worth trying when the "ghetto" is sporting way too many people at the same time. 

I certainly would love to promote some more AM on 40 meters at night but of course it can't really be done on 7.290 or 7.295 usually due to the b.c. stations.  7.160 is often occupied with ssb but there is usually space to be found somewhere.   Maybe some scheduling/ real time heads up here when you wanna call cq on 40 can help.  As you may have noticed, I occasionally post that I'm monitoring some place and calling cq and I have gotten a few readers to check it out and ended up with some qso's that way.  Of course it's much funner to call cq and attract a station randomly.