Copied my first station on 160m CW!

I am extremely happy to report that I was able to copy VU2GSM on 160m band today morning, with my 40 m full loop antenna and ladder line.

I am sure it would have been difficult for most of you to make out the callsign of VU2GSM in CW from this recording as the signal was just above the noise level in my radio. Of course, a trained CW operator can still pick out VU2GSM sieving through the noise. Even though the S meter needle was hardly moving, you can see the CW signals being picked up as tiny flashes of light on the lower part of the meter dial.

As per my usual morning band monitoring routine, I was checking PSK reporter when this signal popped up on 160m at 1:12 AM UTC (06:42 AM IST). It showed that VU2GSM was being picked up by VU2OY station on 1.824 MHz, with an SNR of +21 dB on CW. That was a massive signal strength. So I was hopeful of receiving VU2GSM as I am located midway between VU2GSM and VU2OY.

Reverse Beacon Network also confirmed reception of VU2GSM at VU2OY and DF2CK, with 21 dB and 14 dB SNR respectively.

At present I do not have an antenna for 160m. So I tried with my 40m full loop antenna continuous with a homebrew ladder line terminating in a homebrew 4:1 transformer, about 2m of HLF200 coax and a homebrew common mode choke.

Earlier I used to have 9+30 dB noise on 160m, making any attempts at receiving on that band hopeless.

Luckily, today the noise level on 160m with my full loop 40m antenna was S1. So I could hear VU2GSM clearly, calling CQ, my first ever reception on 160m in my over 40 year journey through ham radio! Not sure how long this good propagation on 160m will last with high levels of solar cycle 25 activity.

As I have absolutely no way of mounting a 160m antenna here, I am thinking of attempting loaded coil dipole once again. An earlier attempt did not resonate on 160m, but was good on 80m! Let us all try as we have AU7RS DXpedition coming up tomorrow and they are planning 160m activation as well.