Overlord, eh? Ha! I like it...
I will, and thanks. Results so far have been encouraging, but the band remains absolute crap. All I can hear today are stateside stations that can't hear each other, but--
For what this is worth, I received a 20/9 report from a J73 on this vertical, and a 10/9 from an LZ1- both were too busy for me to switch back and forth to the dipole, but the LZ was off the ends of it anyway. 20/9 in the Caribbean from the SE U.S. is nice to hear (he was S7-8 here), but I'd hope to have a decent signal there. Over S9 in Bulgaria was more interesting since he was S7 here (Alabama), but two contacts and anectdotal observations do not prove much. On receiving stateside stations, it's about 70/30 in favor of the vertical, but the W7s and W6s that are clearly better on the vertical are in the dipole's nulls.
The sunspot gods need to show us all some love. Then I'll have a better idea of how this wire performs.
I've heard lots of good things about the Hustler verticals. From what I've read, the curve on 75/80 is a little more broad than many commercial verticals, but not by all that much. I'd still pick it over the HyGain if I were going to buy a trap vertical (which I still may at some point).
Rick
