[TowerTalk] Vertical in pond

[David Thompson]

I have worked PY3CEJ in Brazil several times on 160 and he almost always the 
loudest station in that part of the world.  He has a big vertical in the 
middle of a small lake.

Years ago when my club started using a picnic grounds near the Eastern Bank 
of the Mississippi
River we found that putting up our antennas within a few feet of the river 
increased performance greatly.
One of our CW ops was assembling the 15 meter beam on a saw horse (no more 
than 4 feet high) and
a malta station (ZB2 in 1959)appeared near the tune up frequency.  He rushed 
home to his home station, beam at 60 feet and the station was no louder but 
worked nevertheless.  Before moving to this site we tried fire towers and 
small hill tops but next to the river was two to three times better!

Dave K4JRB