Net Report 27 Jan 2021

[VA3KOT John]

Dave, I use a short-loaded end-fed half-wave wire (electrically a half-wave but physically only about 75ft long). I feed it at one end through a 49:1 transformer. The coil is inserted at the quarter-wave point (~67 feet) so that the other "quarter wave" comprises the coil and a few feet of wire. It has a high-Q which makes it a little difficult to tune so I have a short tail (about 6 inches) of wire at the far end that I can adjust for best SWR. I get around 1.8:1 on the CW portion of 20m, 40m and 80m and can use it with the tuner bypassed. The SWR rises to over 3:1 on 3.783 MHz but the tuner takes care of that very easily.

I would expect groundwave propagation from Port Elgin to Owen Sound; it's only a distance of about 35-40km. Solar conditions would then be unimportant. A NVIS antenna would work if groundwave fails for any reason. Regular skywave propagation would put Owen Sound into your skip zone. Are you using a vertical antenna? A vertical would launch your signal way overhead of OS.