Quickie Vertical
Hear I am sitting in front of the rig listening to everyone working CQ World Wide, and I don’t really have time for this, but I hear a few interesting stations on 20 meters and try to call them. Trying to bust the pile up with 100 watts and my hustler dipole is going to be difficult on this band, so I tune up on 15 meters and there is action, and I have a good wire beam, so I tune up and down the band and can’t find a clear frequency. Then I hear some one say that 10 meters is open. So I tune up there, and there is a world of DX coming in. I choose a few interesting ones to call, but can’t be heard. I should have expected that, as my antenna for this band leaves much to be desired. It is a vertical above my Hustler dipole, but it has no effective ground plane and SWR no better than 3:1 at its best frequency. With no time to assemble a Quad, I start thinking about a better vertical.