Made a quick contact with WW4LL from Georgia as he was contesting. Glad I could help him.
It was not an easy one to make. He was hearing me just above and sometimes at the noise level. It took a lot of work on his end to pull me out, but we made the contact and exchanged the required “name and state” info. I’m still not convinced this antenna is working as advertised, but with band conditions being good, I was able to contact him.
My confidence is building that if I head out to the mountains and need assistance, I’ll be able to reach someone. I’m just not confident that I’ll be able to make contact within a reasonable amount of time…especially if band conditions aren’t ideal. Maybe I should have a backup plan as far as the antenna is concerned.