The move to 20 meters

After a day spent fine-tuning my 40m indoor dipole (plus an aborted attempt to mount it outside near the house) I got the SWR down to about 1.5/1, but realized that with the added length to improve SWR the antenna is just too unwieldy for indoor installation. I even tried running the extended length out the windows! That's when I knew I had taken it as far as I could. Time to step back and reconsider.

So, I went ahead and cut a quarter-wave 20m dipole (a bit over 16 feet long in total). SWR was perfect and mounting it up near the ceiling was simple. No bending!

Got on the IC 706-MKII running QRP at about 0200Z and immediately heard (but did not work) stations in Alaska, Texas and Indiana under clear, mild wx conditions. The antenna (14-gage insulated, stranded copper) is oriented roughly broadside to SW - NE.

I'm looking forward to operating later tonight to see if I can actually work some stations, especially now that there is actually some sunspot activity.