I am located in a local valley, surrounded by mountains. Ground conditions are dry and rocky. I run about 40′ of LMR400 to get to the antenna. It is set-up as a permanent installation. It runs from a tree as an Inverted L in a N/S orientation. The only addition I have made is a ground system running from the LMR400/antenna PL-259 connection to an 8′ grounding rod, located at the base of the tree. Besides providing some lightening protection, someday I plan to experiment with radials attached to the grounding rod.

I use a MFJ-969 tuner. Most of my experience has been with 75, 40, & 20 meters. On 40 & 20 I can obtain a 1:1 SWR. The best I can obtain on 80m is a 2.5:1 SWR. 2:1 is a loss of about 1/2 db so I find that acceptable. Since the SWR can be affected by a number of factors, your mileage may vary.

The last couple of months, I have been on the 75, 40, 20, and 15m bands running 100w on the OMISS Net (www.omiss.net). OMISS is a primarily a WAS and awards net. A great group of people by the way.

After a few evenings, I am only 8 states away from my 40m OMISS WAS award. From my “Big Sky” state of Montana, I have worked Hawaii, Alaska to Florida, California to New Hampshire, and Canada to Texas. My personal favorite was WL7X in North Pole, Alaska.

The downside to this antenna is that there is no local bragging rights. There is no tower or revolving Yagi. No magic Christmas tree looking affair. It’s a simple black wire running from a tree, to the railing on my deck. My neighbors haven’t notice it and if I point it out, the response is, “Oh”. It certainly isn’t impressive looking. The other downside is that it doesn’t operate very well as a NVIS (at least how I have it configured) and now the wife doesn’t understand why I need another antenna.

For what some would call a “compromise” antenna, I couldn’t be happier. It’s producing results.

My Alpha J-Pole Jr is set up on a permanent basis as an Inverted L. It hangs from a tree, about 20 feet above the ground. From Montana, I was able to bust a pileup with Croatia using 100w. It’s a keeper.

K7CPY