Great Rick,

I'm near Philly, maybe we can chat on 40 or 75 some time when you get the 
antennas  set up.  Grab a TW-1 if at all possible.  It  is a big help in 
tuning the amp with the power  tone feature, and  also for tuning antennas 
with the swr  tone feature.

I don't know if you have any sort of accessible swr meter, but if not, how 
do you know that your R7 is set up  and tuned right?   Even if someone 
helped you set it up in the first place with a  analyzer or other gear, 
things can change over time.

I don't want to beat a dead horse on the vertical, but are you not hearing 
stations? Or  are they not hearing you?


Since you  have a tower, perhaps a small used beam for the higher bands up 
there and or a  rotatable dipole to cover some of the bands of interest.


Since you can't use the tower for center support of a dipole  because of the 
power lines,  maybe use  the tower  to support one end and  put a mast to 
hold up the other.

Or use a sloper from the  top of the tower in  a direction away from the ac 
lines.    Alpha Delta makes some of these, but it will require a ground 
wire from the feed point down to a ground.    I think for this to work 
properly yu would need  a real HF yagi or something on top of the tower. 
Not sure if the vhf stuff you have on the tower is sufficient.

Richard had a good idea earlier.  If you can get a local ham to stop by and 
give a quick look, there may well be  an easy solution  to the problem that 
isn't obvious to you.

Also remember that a dipole doesn't have to be  totally horizontal or in a 
inverted vee.   It can slope, it can bend, the ends can droop, etc.   You 
can put one end  near the top of the tower  and let the whole thing slope 
downward to  a 10 or 15 foot mast some distance away.  You can even pick up 
another 15 or 20 feet of antenna length by letting   some of the wire  hang 
down   from the  top of the tower. Just keep it a few feet away from the 
tower.


73, good luck,  Steve KW3A