wow thank you so much for your time and welcoming. that is great advice and I might just have to try to buy a vertical. one question I had though. I was thinking of building a 10 meter 2 element yaggi for the experience would this get me anywhere better on the band?
Thank you everyone for your feed back I apologize that I didn't get back to everyone. this all helps me greatly!
Your random wire may actually be a bit long for 10 meters. It's probably a bit directional on that band, in the direction the wire is pointing. You might try cutting a dipole for 10 (only 16' long) and see how that hears. Be patient - they don't call it 'sporadic e' for nothing.
Ten-meter propagation is better in tropical, southcentral Alaska. The last time I worked the Lower-48 to any great effect was the 2014 ARRL 10M Contest, which I won handily with over 1100 mixed-mode Q's. I was operating from my home station in Palmer, consisting of a TH3 at 40 feet and 1000 Watts PEP. It was the highest score from Alaska for all classes/modes. I'll miss operating times like that from Alaska. The pile-ups were fun. Steve-o
I don't know if it will be any "better" per se, but it will almost certainly outperform your wire. And it will be great experience! Use the aforementioned top rail pipe to hold it up. You should be able to turn it with a $100 TV rotator, at least for a little while, or you could just armstrong it. Cut about a foot off of the 20' piece to use above the rotator. Keep that piece short to minimize the bending moment. That should put the antenna ~18' in the air, more or less, which is just above half a wavelength at 28.4mhz, so you should hopefully pick up a little ground gain. Have fun, good luck, post pictures and hope to work you on it.
I use an I max 2000 for ten meter also, easy to assemble and tune, not that expensive. Have had good luck with it, as with all verticals you will pick up more noise than you would with other antennas. You did not mention what size of coax you are running, I would recommend an RG-213 . If you are running the smaller coax in 75' or longer you will have signal strength loses that will hamper you also. You are on the right track with this, remember its a Learning Experience, It gets easier with time. Have Fun !!
