yes that's not a bad idea at all to get in touch with some local hams.
i'm not "in" with them, i mean, i've never been to a ham meeting or
anything like that, but i do know there are some hams around here and
that they do meet. if nothing else at least one of them might have a
good enough rig setup to let me hear what the signals were supposed to
sound like when you were getting a good signal.

Denny wrote:
Ask around for the local ham radio club... Hams who operate in the 80
meter and 40 meter bands will be familiar with propagation issues and
how to determine if you have a cable or antenna problem, and with
setting up the radio on the proper sideband, proper bandwidth, tuning,
etc...
Hams are a great resource for boaters with HF radio issues... Just be
aware that hams have various license classes and the fellas with a
technician level license will not have HF experience, for the most
part... But, any ham with a license rating higher than technician
likely speaks HF radio fluently...

denny - k8do

A stake driven into the ground is not a useful counterpoise for RF
signals... It only grounds you for static shocks, etc.. If your truck
is stationary then run a wire from the ground lug of the radio out the
window and lay it across the ground, bare wire or insulated either is
fine... About 40' long will do the job nicely... This is called a
radial wire... More than one radial wire running in different
directions will also improve things...

Also, as noted, a vertical wire in the city can be quite noisy on some
frequencies... Try running your antenna wire horizontal - head high is
fine, just hang it from the bushes, wood fence, whatever... You might
have both the vertical and horizontal wires hung up and switch between
them... Nothing like trying for yourself to see the differences at your
location...

And, congratulations on working towards your ham license... BTW, when
you put the rig in autotune, you are transmitting... It is low power
and brief, so I don't have a problem with it... But tuning up on one of
the government WEFAX, whatever, frequencies will be frowned on if
noticed by the FCC... Best to be off frequency 10 kc before hitting
the tune button...

cheers ... denny

denny, thank you so much for this post. there were a couple of really
helpful things in there that are going to help me out. one is i didn't
know about the radials, that will help me greatly. one thing i
certainly have a lot of is wire! my radio is grounded at the chassis
and i have a convenient spot right next to that ground to run all the
wire that i want to. at present i am tossing my long wire antenna up
into trees, 10 to maybe 30 degrees from horizonal. they have a slight
catenary shape but i don't think that is much of a problem, i can't
make them too straight or they pull my alligator clip lose from the
whip antenna, that's how i connect the long wire to the radio. i can
use your radial scheme easilly because i'm already using the long wire
antenna in spots where i am not bothering anyone or in anyone's way.

also thank you for the information about the tune button. i knew it
sent out some kind of energy to tune but i thought it was on the order
of a few millivolts or something, i haven't read up on it. i do know
that tuning the antenna helps with reception, at least it seems to.

since you're here, i have a question ... is there any disadvantage to
using a longer random length wire antenna ? i mean, i'm using about
i'd say 30 foot now, is there any disadvantage to using 40, or 50 ? i
assume there is a gain in terms of reception but maybe that's a bad
assumption. i think a better RF ground using those radials is going to
help me more than anything.

thanks again!

Denny wrote:
A stake driven into the ground is not a useful counterpoise for RF
signals... It only grounds you for static shocks, etc.. If your truck
is stationary then run a wire from the ground lug of the radio out the
window and lay it across the ground, bare wire or insulated either is
fine... About 40' long will do the job nicely... This is called a
radial wire... More than one radial wire running in different
directions will also improve things...

Also, as noted, a vertical wire in the city can be quite noisy on some
frequencies... Try running your antenna wire horizontal - head high is
fine, just hang it from the bushes, wood fence, whatever... You might
have both the vertical and horizontal wires hung up and switch between
them... Nothing like trying for yourself to see the differences at your
location...

And, congratulations on working towards your ham license... BTW, when
you put the rig in autotune, you are transmitting... It is low power
and brief, so I don't have a problem with it... But tuning up on one of
the government WEFAX, whatever, frequencies will be frowned on if
noticed by the FCC... Best to be off frequency 10 kc before hitting
the tune button...

cheers ... denny