wrote:
For years I have been using a Hustler vertical antenna which I have
never been able to get working right. I paid about $100 for it. I
kept adjusting and adjusting it, but the damn thing was no better then
hanging a wire out of a window.

I wonder if you had the ground plane for the Hustler set up properly.
The Hustlers are pretty good, especially for long-distance when they
are
tuned. The absolute minimum ground plane for a vertical is three or
four
1/4 wave radials drooping down from the base of the antenna when
mounted on the roof.
A commercial radio station has 180 quarter-wave radials buried at
2-degree
intervals. Hams have had reasonable success with eight or twelve
radials
on a ground-mounted vertical. Verticals also work well when mounted on
cars,
which provide a good ground plane. Because they are a high-Q antenna,
verticals
are not very good for multi-band short-wave listening as their gain
falls off
rapidly beyond their tuned frequency. They also tend to pick up more
noise
than a dipole. I wouldn't give up on the Huster but I would make sure
the
radials were tuned to some frequency of interest and use it for
long-distance
listening where its low angle would make it superior to the low
dipole. The
length of the radial and the tuned frequency of the Hustler coil must
agree.

hustler antenna? I dont like the name of it.I wouldn't touch it with a
million mile long pole!
cuhulin