"Denno" wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi All. I will be getting my General Class license in the very near
future I hope. Of course, they got rid of CW after I finally had 5
WPM mastered. :-)

I live in New England and a friend of mine lives about 300 air miles
away. He has a 100 foot tower and it's amazing to see him work 20
meters. He also mentioned that he is finding 10 meters is opening more
and is having luck there also.

Unfortunately, all I have access to at this time is a 25 watt 10
meter rig. For my first HF antenna, I would like to be able to
communicate with my HAM friend as a priority, with any further
contacts a bonus. He recommended a full wavelength dipole set up as
an inverted V and experiment with wire angles. I know the inverted V
is much more omni directional than a flat dipole.


You will have to trade that 10 meter rig for something that will work 80
meters or 40 meters. While the band may open sometime for that distance,
it is too far away for ground wave and maybe too close for sky wave most of
the time. No antenna that can be put up by most hams can help you reach
that distance 99.9 % of the time on 10 meters.