I yam calling CQ now....

[W3MIV]

Or 80?

I don't think either Carl or I have juice enough for eighty from LG to EC.

[W4BD]

Well If y'all want me in on it and I can hear you post a time and freq and I will try and play. I will be up about 0630-0700 or so and check to see if anybody has posted a time and freq. I will run barefoot because I am having a problem with my 811H.

[NQ6U]

No, I can't do 80 worth a damn. Can't even get my antenna to tune up to less than a 2.5:1 SWR.

[W3MIV]

No, I can't do 80 worth a damn. Can't even get my antenna to tune up to less than a 2.5:1 SWR.

I don't quite understand that; unless there are environmental issues impacting the antenna, you should be able to tune 75/80 easily with a G5RV. My wire is two feet shorter and tunes well on eighty and forty. I am using window line for feeder, whereas many over-the-counter G5RV pattern antennae come supplied with a standard, solid-web twin-lead. Still, line loss itself should not prevent the tuner from matching the load if the tuner has sufficient range -- though line loss does mean that the antenna will not receive sufficient power to perform well. The tuners built into rigs do not have sufficient range to tune the G5RV much beyond its natural frequency of twenty meters. I am using an MFJ autotuner with a stated range of 6-1600 ohms.

I can easily understand the problems of too-little height above ground, for I have that same problem here. Nevertheless, I can work NVIS very effectively on 75/80, though transcontinental reach is beyond any normal expectation. I have easily worked from ME to FL on 75 SSB running barefoot -- but I admit that was in better times (2004-06).

[W4BD]

Well I started listening at about 0700 but didn't hear anybody much on around 7070 or around 10140 and I am still listening on around 10140 and around 18100.

[NQ6U]

I don't quite understand that; unless there are environmental issues impacting the antenna, you should be able to tune 75/80 easily with a G5RV.

Mine is the G5RV Jr., really only good on 20 and 40. I'd like to upgrade but I'm already using the only two trees on my property tall enough to be useful and the Junior is the longest antenna that would fit between them. Living in a near-desert has it's drawbacks. I'd have to erect a structure of some sort and I don't have the money for that at the moment.

[W3MIV]

Mine is the G5RV Jr., really only good on 20 and 40. I'd like to upgrade but I'm already using the only two trees on my property tall enough to be useful and the Junior is the longest antenna that would fit between them. Living in a near-desert has it's drawbacks. I'd have to erect a structure of some sort and I don't have the money for that at the moment.

I feel your pain. My 100' spread is the max I can manage, so I understand the frustration.

I stumbled across a guy calling CQ on forty from VA yesterday evening. He in Fredericksburg, which is less than a hundred miles from my QTH. As we chatted, he mentioned that he is in an HOA-managed environment, and that he was using a vertical made by "TWA" -- never heard of them, and I doubt it is the airline, but he said he gets good service out of it and that it hides well in the trees in his yard. In passing, he mentioned that since we were so close he would shut down the amp -- so whatever it is, the antenna must be capable of handling a few hundred watts. Maybe some sort of verticle would meet your needs. I have looked at a few of them -- tempting, but I am cheap and may move out of this house in another year or two, so do not want to make any investments beyond a spool of teflon insulated 12-gauge wire from Home Depot.

I did see some traces of gibberish which included fragments of your call when you were trying Contestia on twenty. Last night twenty quickly fell apart, however, and by about nine CW was just about the only effective mode left in the quiver anywhere above forty. Both forty and seventy-five had a bunch of chats going -- mostly the usual cliques of renegades, rednecks, assholes and bandits (with some of the worst redneck assholes centered in New England -- whooda figured that?!) -- all running a kilowatt or more, and all spouting garbage.

I went to bed.

[W3WN]

Flagpole vertical.

Design it to be about 22 - 26 feet high, bottom feed it with a tuner, give it a good radial field, and it should load well on 80 - 30, possibly 20. Make it shorter (16 - 20 feet) and it should be good for 30 - 10. And you can take the antenna itself with you when you move.

I have the aluminum masts to make mine in the garage right now. Just ran out of summer to start on the front-of-the-house project, which will include landscaping to include it. But this will go up in the spring (plan changes not with standing).

I've also heard & read about hams who have gotten their hands on fiberglass flagpoles that are big enough (inside) to fit an Cushcraft or HyGain trap vertical inside, although depending on the vertical, you may lose the capacitor top hat in the process. To the world, it looks like a flagpole, but we all know what is hidden inside!

There's almost always a way. It may not be ideal, but it will get your RF radiating into the ether!

[W3MIV]

...you may lose the capacitor top hat in the process. To the world, it looks like a flagpole, but we all know what is hidden inside!

Doesn't seem like it would be too difficult to model some sort of a conductive ornament ( large ball, star with radials, etc) to provide capacitance.

MFJ's latest vertical looks to be a natural for concealment as a flagpole.