Greetings  All.

                     What  a great night that was, the 16th. Conditions super. I worked  Sweden, Denmark  AND Switzerland, all for the first time, with  IK5ZPV causing qrm on 136.5 KHZ, I actually lost a contact due to his CQ, never mind, it was great to hear him on with such a fine signal. Thanks to all for the great contacts. Also worked  OH1TN again, after a long time without hearing him, we both exchanged  549  reports.

Regarding  Tuned Counterpoises. Well,  I don't really know much about it , but I did tune it to resonance.  First I used the counterpoise  and tuned it with the spare  ATU. Fired up the transmitter into it and found the resonant point. No problem.

Next I tuned the main antenna to resonance, getting  3.9 amps. Then connected the counterpoise to its  ATU and connected the end of this ATU to the earth bus and retuned the  main ATU to get maximum smoke. Delighted to report now getting  4.6 amps Both the main antenna and the counterpoise are run to the earth bus, only difference is the tap up the main ATU to connect the Transmitter. Did notice  slight interdependence between the  Main and Counterpoise  ATU variometer settings. Incidently, both ATU's are entirely made up of big chunky  Litz  wire, these are commercial  Beacon ATU's.

What I mean by interdependence is, reduction in inductance in counterpoise ATU could be make up for  in Main ATU, within reason. Without having someone to properly measure the difference in the system with and without the counterpoise, perhaps the   .7 amp increase in antenna current is  not  REAL.  It certainly  made me feel good , seeing the needle WHACK up to 4.6 amps.

One other thing discovered in all this.......  at first I had the  ANT and Counterpoise  coming in throught the wooden window frame but only about   7 inches apart.  I had terrible problems with arcing over to the window frame. Tried everything, double insulation etc etc , but no good.  However once I seperated them by about  20 inches , it all stopped and no further problems with arcing over to the window frame.

WELL , what do you think.

Best regards

Finbar  EI0CF   Malin Head