Fred wrote:

Do you have your radios (or antenna mast) grounded?

-Donald

Yes the mast is grounded... I guess I thought with a dipole it would
be worthless without it's bottom half, or at least seriously
compromised.

Nope, you just re-invented the quarter wave whip antenna, with your mast
providing the counterpoise... ;-)

Can't tell from the provided picture, but if the elements on the top and
bottom were different sizes, you may have lost more than 3dB at the
frequency ranges the bottom half was tuned for...

Might be interesting to know how well just your mast does... :-)

-D
--
"A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy
enough people to make it worth the effort." -Herm Albright