Spent most of the day changing around and re-arranging antennas here.
Got my hands on another Shakespeare Super Big Stick, put it up on a section of 10' heavy gauge galvanized fence post, putting the bottom of the antenna approx 18 feet off the ground. A single ground wire connected to a ground rod next to the garage.
Running it to my MFJ-949C I was able to tune it up almost flat on 10 meters. About a 2:1 on 12 and 15 meters, not so good on 17 meters, and a 1.5:1 on 20 meters. On 20m it certainly does not work as well as my dipole, but I was able to check into the Maritime Mobile Service Net on it, and got a good signal report, and that was with marginal conditions.
This certianly won't be my main 20 meter antenna, but it's nice to know I can use it as a back up if I ever need to...
Back to 10 meters, this evening I was hearing a round table discussion down in Florida for a good 45 minutes, tried to make contact, but these guys were pretty quick on the key, and didn't give me any openings to break into the conversation. Then the conditions changed and I lost them altogether. Scanning the band, I hears a couple more Florida stations, but with the conditions going bad, they were just above the noise level, so I didn't bother trying to call them.....
At least I know this thing works, and will hold me over until I can buy a decent multi band Hustler, or some other vertical......
Got my hands on another Shakespeare Super Big Stick, put it up on a section of 10' heavy gauge galvanized fence post, putting the bottom of the antenna approx 18 feet off the ground. A single ground wire connected to a ground rod next to the garage.
Running it to my MFJ-949C I was able to tune it up almost flat on 10 meters. About a 2:1 on 12 and 15 meters, not so good on 17 meters, and a 1.5:1 on 20 meters. On 20m it certainly does not work as well as my dipole, but I was able to check into the Maritime Mobile Service Net on it, and got a good signal report, and that was with marginal conditions.
This certianly won't be my main 20 meter antenna, but it's nice to know I can use it as a back up if I ever need to...
Back to 10 meters, this evening I was hearing a round table discussion down in Florida for a good 45 minutes, tried to make contact, but these guys were pretty quick on the key, and didn't give me any openings to break into the conversation. Then the conditions changed and I lost them altogether. Scanning the band, I hears a couple more Florida stations, but with the conditions going bad, they were just above the noise level, so I didn't bother trying to call them.....
At least I know this thing works, and will hold me over until I can buy a decent multi band Hustler, or some other vertical......