First off, I want to say that the IC-7600 has been a great radio for me, and I have no doubt that the IC-7610 is much better. I was thinking about finally taking the plunge and upgrading to the 7610 soon, so I started following the IC-7610 group at Groups.io. There was suddenly a mention... Continue Reading →
Can I Use My ZS6BKW on 160 Meters?
I wanted to get on the air for the CQ 160 contest this weekend but my Inverted "L" is down. I have a ZS6BKW that I have used on 80m before and wondered if I could do it on 160 meters. The two legs are around 45 feet each and the ladder line is about... Continue Reading →
Beverage Antenna Support Structure
One of the first tasks in my Beverage antenna project was to decide upon a method of supporting the wires. I planned on a bidirectional antenna, so a dual wire hanger is needed. Some key concerns are the desired height and the environment where the antennas will be installed. In my case, I want the... Continue Reading →
Using WSPR Transmission for HF Antenna Testing
I have been playing around with the weak-signal propagation mode WSPR for about a year now. Most of my WSPR initial work was in receiving and reporting Spots from WSPR transmitters. Now I wanted to do some HF antenna testing but it was in a rough RF reception environment. So instead of receiving and reporting... Continue Reading →
Connecting an IC-7300 to the Elecraft KPA-500 Amp and KAT-500 Tuner
***** Important Update with WARC Band Warning (at end of Post) ***** I have been using the Elecraft KPA-500 and KAT-500 with two Icom rigs; the IC-7600 and the IC-7300. This article details how I have chosen to interconnect the KAT/KPA-500 with my IC-7300. There are also varying options for interconnecting the 7300 with this... Continue Reading →
A Dipole that Covers the Entire 80 Meter Band with SWR less than 3:1 – UPDATED 11/8/2025
11/8/2025 update - Found a very good Link from W4RNL (SK) discussing this broadbanding approach. He is my favorite source for practical antenna information. In his article, he gets into the details and performs some modeling of this approach to broadbanding dipole antennas. you can find his research here Many Hams use wire antennas, and... Continue Reading →
160 Meter Inverted “L” Antenna – Updated 12/30/2020
I have a need to get on 160m occasionally for a contest, but have limited space. I tried a dipole, but it was just too much trouble. I had to bend the ends all around to fit my small lot. I keep hearing that an Inverted L is a decent antenna, but have never been... Continue Reading →
Using External Antenna Tuners with the IC-7300 – Update 9/24/20
I have been trying a couple external Tuners with my IC-7300 transceiver, with mixed results. They actually both worked, but operation is a little confusing. The tuners I have tried so far are: Elecraft KAT-500 LDG Electronics IT-100 The Elecraft Tuner is made for the K3-line but Elecraft has also made sure that it can... Continue Reading →
Trying a “Short” Beverage Antenna on 160m
I wanted to do something to improve my Station performance on 160m, so I thought a Receive Antenna would be the way to go. Everyone tells me that you need a decent RX Antenna for 160m, because you can not expect much on the RX side, from a 160m dipole. The dipole is sure to... Continue Reading →
Getting into the Game on 160 meters
I have slowly been adding 160 meter Band capability to my Station, mainly in some recent contests. With sunspots so low, and the high HF Bands suffering badly as a result, this seems like a good time to do some work on the Low Bands. I have started trying some antennas and have been able... Continue Reading →
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