Minnesota is in the books!

Thanks to the excellent ears of Scott N0AR, K6JSS/0 from Minnesota is in the books.  I had a heck of a time working him and got a 229, thanks to the efforts on his end.  I ended up using the Butternut HF9V, which I rarely use on 80 Meters, preferring to use the G5RV.

Scott's signal into NJ was much louder on the Butternut; so that is the route I took.  His signal was a good 559 with QSB.  This concerns me as the wire was always better on 80 Meters.  I think this confirms my suspicion that this antenna has seen much better days and needs to be replaced this spring.

I will probably replace it with the venerable 88' EDZ which seems to be one of W4RNL's all time favorite backyard antennas.  The footprint is smaller than the G5RV,  and I should be able to fit it in the backyard without having to zig-zag the wire.  I have plenty of window line and plenty of wire.  I'll have to build a balun to transition the window line to coax to feed to the shack. 

The other possibility is a Carolina Windom.  Using my maple tree as a center anchoring point, the run from the tree to the house is longer than from the tree to the mast across the yard.  I think that would also fit with no problem whatsoever and would make good use of the different lengths that are available to me.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!