[CQ-Contest] Sloper Advice

[Jamie Dupree]

I am trying to build an 80 meter sloper for the upcoming contest season,
and I was hoping someone in CQ-Contest-land could give me some advice.

I don't have a tower and beam on top - I'm trying to build a sloper that just
hangs in one of my trees in the backyard.

I pulled a center connector almost 50 feet up - one wire is cut at
67 feet for 80 meters and is pulled out at a 45 degree angle.

The other wire comes down to a ground rod, where I attached it with
a small hose clamp and the regular screw that was on the rod.

It gives me a 3-1 SWR,  and hears about three s-units worse than my
inverted vee on 80.  My rigs don't really want to tune the thing,
so I know something just isn't working right.

I even tried running a few radials from the ground rod, but that
only made things worse.

If anyone has some tips, I would greatly appreciate the help,
whether on or off the reflector.  

Thanks

Jamie NS3T