On 02/02/2016 09:56 AM, Jerry Stuckle wrote:
On

I still enjoy CW - but nothing will ever compare to the excitement of
those first contacts as a novice, even if I had my old Hallicrafters
SX-43 and Knight-kit T-60 back again!

I made a lot of QSO's with a 40M dipole stretched across my parents back
yard. Only about 15' above ground, but it worked. I've had better
antennas which got farther and had better signal reports. But none
worked as well as that dipole!




One of my best contacts was working Ascension Island (from Wisconsin) on
40 meter CW with a wire vertical. I was running 50 watts.


Eventually I put up a beam, but was anxious to use it and worked South
Africa with it on the tripod just 3 or 4 feet off the ground