Topband: 9V1GO & first Beverage tests

[N1BUG]

Many thanks to Bob, 9V1GO for the QSO last evening.  Country 
# 110 for this season and my first ever southeast Asia on 
top band!  I've spent 23 years dreaming of making that QSO, 
but never thought it would happen while I was still using 
the inverted V.  My heart nearly stopped when I heard Bob 
respond to my call and I didn't breathe during the whole 
exchange!  There was a lot of QSB, but Bob's signal was 
mostly readable for over 20 minutes and peaked up very 
nicely just at the end of our exchange.  Wow.

I managed to get one of the new Beverages hooked up for 
testing last night.  As expected, noise output from the 
Beverage appears to be several dB below my receiver noise 
floor.  It seems to hear well in favored directions, but I 
couldn't tell if it was ever better than the inverted V.  I 
will have to get the preamp built before I will know 
whether the Beverage is a worthwhile antenna for me.  It is 
this specific receiver, folks; I know preamps are not 
*normally* required for one wavelength Beverages.

73,
Paul N1BUG