A half-square is nothing more than 2/3 of a bobtail curtain. Think
of your half-square as two quarter wave verticals, interconnected with a
1/2 wavelength phasing line. Having the bottom 3 feet on the ground
seriously degrades the performance. Even more troubling is the distance of
one leg to your tower. My studies of bobtails using MN shows serious
degradation when one leg is placed 7 feet from a tower. There is even
significant degradation at 30 feet from the tower.
I am going through the same 80 meter agony at my new QTH. At my old QTH
I had nothing more than 1/4 wave slopers. They were good stateside antennas,
but lousy DX antennas. They performed significantly better than either
an inverted-v, or a 1/4 wave vertical hung between the towers (with not enough
radials). I recently modelled the slopers with MN, and they leave
a lot to be desired.
If it's any consolation, you were loud on 20 meters.
Steve, N2IC/0
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