Antennas for 160 Meters

Antenna: 160 meters, Range: 1.8 to 2.0 MHz

Good 160 meters antennas are easy to build with nothing more than readily available materials. Since 160 meters covers the frequency range of 1.8 to 2.0 MHz you can use a few algebraic formulas to compute antenna sizes. One thing about 160 meters as a survivalist band, you won’t see many others there!

The use of 160 meters for survivalists is likely never to come about for several reasons. One reason is the size of antennas needed for the 160 meter band are rather large. On HF communications radio operators generally use antennas that are one quarter wavelength for the band they wish to use. On 160 meters a quarter-wave antenna is in the neighborhood of 130 feet. Shortened verticals and dipoles are used with some success and there are some hearty souls who have develop massive beam antennas for 160 meters such as the one shown below.

Of course these 160 meter beam antennas would not be practical for any type of survivalist communications.

Problem number two with 160 meters is that it is primarily a nighttime, wintertime band due to its propagation characteristics.