about coaxial vs other traps. Since I'm not going for broke, but just want a
quick and dirty solution, I was thinking about making a coaxial trap for 80m
out of RG8/X coax (or I could buy some 58a/u) that I have laying around. Not
running more than 500w, so this size coax should be fine.

I did that once to make a dual-band inverted L, and it worked fine (I
also used a coax-cable trap). I tuned the trap for 80m.

Here is another alternative to think about that might be even easier:
simply put up a second wire for 160m, and feed it in parallel with the
80m wire.

For a while I had up a 160m inverted L with a vertical part of about
75'. I had a 80m wire (full 1/4 wave) running parallel to the 160m, and
spaced about 3 feet away. At the base, they both connected to the
feedpoint. I used a beta match coil across the feedpoint to match
the 160 wire, which had little effect on the 80m swr. It worked
quite well on both bands.


Tor
N4OGW