Hi;
Still wondering which hf verticals folks have good success with and were 
moderately straight forward to assemble.  Curtis has given a vote for 
his high gain 640.  I liked the cushcraft r8 but it was very top heavy 
and didn't do well in my wind.  I'm currently doing battle with an hf9v 
and the antenna is currently winning.  I'd love to try the step ir but 
don't think it would do well roof mounted.  Also not clear as to the 
difference between the two versions.
Finally a friend who is a retired engineer has suggested that all one 
needs to do is put up a random length pipe although 40 feet would be his 
length of choice.  No traps, no matching just a good external tuner at 
the antenna. Although I haven't talked with him directly I think there 
is someone else locally using a similar arrangement.  Back when I 
thought I knew a thing or two, I thought a tuner was basically just a 
means of tricking the radio and or amplifier into being happy but didn't 
think it increased the performance of the antenna.  Anyone else ran 
across anything similar?
   --
richard