Topband: Inverted "L" vs." T"

[Dennis OConnor]

The effect of trees on 160 signals is going to be minor in either case... The conductive salts and sugars in the sap are mostly confined to a thin skin around the trunk and more heavily in the leaves...  The biggest thing is that during much of the 160 season in the north, the sap has gone back down, the leaves are off, and the wood in the tree is mostly transparent to RF so for us trees are convenient supports more than anything else.....

As far as W8JI and QRP... Tom's real advantage is an excellent ground plane under his transmit vertical, a world class collection of receiving antennas, and a bunch of hot rod receivers...  His station would do well as a QRP entry...  Whether he would do well is unknown to me...  
In my case it wouldn't matter... I love to build antennas but I am a lousy contester to the point that I doubt you would see much difference in QRO and QRP scores from me...

denny / k8do