Finally, returning back to gave y'all my take on the Sirio Starduster make-shift 1/4-wave GND-Plane. And??? It's seems the perfect Upper HF Antenna for my near bottom valley location. 2:1 VSWR curves are from 25MHz to 30MHz! The 1st, 1/2-ass installation was placed 30-some feet away from the house. The Cushcraft AR-10 is side-mounted to the house and RX's all the house's electrical & computer noisy garbage. Noise, on the AR-10 is anyway from S3 to S5 of hash & BZZZZZZZZ. Noise, on the Starduster is anywhere from 1/2 an 'S' unit to S1. (Nice!!!) 1st Starduster install, the GND Radials were only 10ft off the ground. VSWR sweet-spot was 1.3:1 around CB Channel 20. 10M local Chit-Chat FREQ here is 28.415MHz USB. VSWR was just under 1.6:1. (BTW, I went by the Sirio manual for elements' lengthening & settings.) Certainly usable to talk, but a touch of a tuner is good to do. Anyway, folks on CB and 10M Chit-Chat gave me mixed reviews. Some CB'er noticed that I was down in signal, and the dude that I QSO with on 10M, about 20-some miles away in Culloden, WV, said my signal was down a couple of S-units. However, some CB'ers also noticed a signal improvement a couple of "S" units, over the AR-10, in other directions. One thing that was noticed was the RX improvement in WWV's 25MHz signal in the daytime. At least several "S" units over the AR-10, and even my Windom Antenna. During Christmas, the Starduster worked great on Sporadic "E" catches, with just 20W. And, 1st time shout & catch. I was strongly encouraged, by my friend in Culloden, to raise that Starduster higher. So, before that cold-snap in January, I had a 50-some degree weekend to lower, retune the Starduster, by reducing the VERT length a few inches, and added another 5ft pipe section to the mast. WOW!!!! Just that added 5ft raise made an S3 improvement to my friend in Culloden. And, VSWR on 28.415MHz, now 1.2:1. (No tuner required there, and the GND-Radials may have been too low previously. Thus, a capacitive effect.) On 10M the rig is a MAX-out 20W Xiegu G90, and the CB is a Uniden Bearcat SSB980, totally bear foot. CB Band VSWR is 1.3:1 on CH40 and 1.4:1 VSWR on CH1. (That's fine.) Antenna does hear well on 12M, (24.9MHz.), but at a 2.1:1, I need to tweak the tuner there. And, 3:1VSWR on 15M, 21MHz, where a tuner is fine there as well. The auto-tuner will do 20M, 14MHz, but I've noticed that my Windom is far better there. So, still testing this antenna, as time allows, but so far, I'm really diggin' it.
https://www.copperelectronics.com/cart/Antennas-Towers/CB-Antennas/Base-CB-Antennas/M400-10-11-Meter
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