Below are several antenna setups that are intended for 160 Meter operation. The diagrams are redrawn from Bill Orr's book "W6SAI HF Antenna Handbook". The antennas are called by several different names. There's the Marconi, End-Fed, Inverted-L, etc.. And, in many cases, these antennas can be used on multiple bands.

The Marconi antenna is usually defined as a vertical wire with a length of 1/4 of the working wavelength, fed through its lower end. It needs a ground plane with very good conductivity. The Marconi radiator is resonant to any odd multiple of a quarter-wave length. The length of the wire is calculated using the equation on the right. But this is problematic in that, the 1.8 to 2.0 MHz range as would require a wire length of 116' 10-1/2" (35.625 m) to 129' 10-3/8" (39.5833 m). Keeping the wire vertical would not be doable for most amateurs. So a variety of compromises have been adopted.

So the general idea is to have as much of the antenna vertical. It's usually doable to get the initial 40' (12.2 m) vertical. Then, the rest of the wire could be run sloping or horizontally, to a remote tie point. That's where the antenna starts to look more like the End-Fed and Inverted-L.

However, the biggest item stressed, in all of the antenna installations is Grounding. The 1/4 wavelength of wire above the ground is really only half the antenna. The other half is the counterpoise. This can be as simple as a single wire laid on the ground, under the main wire. But can include thing like ground rods, above/below ground radials, underground pipe systems, etc.. Everyone agrees that the difference between a good 160M antenna and a great 160M antenna, is the ground system.

Simple Marconi for 160 Meters

This is a End-Fed Quarter-Wave Marconi antenna. It will probably work at any frequency in the band, once it's properly adjusted for a low SWR. A popular idea for a 160 Meter radial ground is a insulated wire (~126'). One end is attached to the common ground point at the transmitter, and the wire is run along near, but not touching, the ground. The radial ground can be run through the bushes or along a fence. The far end should be covered with tape to prevent anyone from comming in contact with it.

Mini-Antenna for 160 Meters

Sometimes you don't have room for a full size 160 Meter antenna.

Multi-Band for 160, 80 40, and 20 Meters