Topband: assessing beverage performance (or lack of!)

[WW3S]

I was able to complete my beverage installation Saturday afternoon and now
need to know if its working as it should. Its 500' long, roughly pointed at
50-55 deg (EU). Fed by a K2ZJ box and terminated by a 470 ohm resistor. Both
ends are sloped the last 40-50 ft. Height is roughly 6-7 feet.   QTH is
roughly 41.4 and 80.2 ( abt 35 miles south of Lake Erie and 15 miles from
the OH/PA line). Transmit ant is an inv L. Front to back on the beverage
seems good. New England stations were FB copy on the beverage. Midwest
stations definitely "disappeared" when switched to the beverage. Since this
is my first time using a beverage, I'm not sure what to expect.

Were condx good, bad or so-so? I only worked 2 DX, both in the Caribbean. I
heard several in the window working EU but could never copy the DX. I know
one was ON4UN. I thought for sure I could have copied John on the beverage
as I heard him last year on the inv L but I never heard a whisper. Was I to
far north? With the condx we had, should I have expected to hear him on the
bev?

I used the box without the preamp as with it on the noise went to about S8.
Is that normal? How can I tell if the box is working? I tried it several
years ago on a EWE but this is the first its been used in maybe 8 years.

Really only worked one station, VO1HP, on the beverage that I could not hear
on the TX ant. Switching between the 2 while listening to New
England/Midwest stations seemed to confirm that the antenna is directive and
the noise level really dropped on the beverage; from what I've read that's
what I should expect; the signal levels were very low but the noise was just
about non-existent.

I've read a lot about beverage lengths; from what I can tell going to a so
called cone of silence length would only benefit f/b and since f/b seems ok
already, would there be a benefit to going to 540/580? How about going to
880 or 1040?

If I can figure this one out, I may try to get another up for CQ 160 facing
west.  I may not be able to go 500' with that one; would it be worth it to
put one up abt 300-400 ft??

73 Jamie