Hello CK and 357: Yeah the ability to go Vert or Horz is a big plus for tactual communications that seemed to always be there. We had a great time at it. Project Straw Dispenser, Channel X, Back Door, and many others one used his Vert/Horz Beam Antenna, fine tuning AM stations with a narrow IF Filter when jamming is happening, the variable attenuator, LPI (low possibility of interception) type antennas, parked behind some ones house.
The center photo of the Avanti Antenna Switch shows the outside wires very close to each other possibly not allowing the isolation you may want when switching back and forth from Vert/Horz. Suggest swapping the outside wires and making the wires shorter to reduce any coupling that is there. You don't want the Antenna Switch to reduce any Vert/Horz Polarity isolation the antenna can do due to a cheap stereo speaker switch. You could also add copper circuit board material to make you own cavity to add isolation. Or even use coax for the outside wires.
I have a old old Gonset G12 tube radio that is the garage radio as I keep an ear on the locals bad mouthing me when I am in the advanced state of the art research and development center, the garage. Talk about nostalgia, even with a old WWII Eisenhower type carbon mic.
Jay in the Great Mojave Desert