In a past report I wrote a review of this antenna and I was not all warm and fuzzy about its performance. However, I was not prepared to give up so did a little tinkering. First, I moved the long leg to another position, I have it tied to a tree branch, well the clothes line at the end of the actual wire. By doing so we found a resonant point on 80 meters and that was about 3.600KHZ, this allowed us to cover 80CW pretty well. Ok, we checked 40, same, but wider coverage, antenna resonates about 7.100 and covers the CW band with a 1.4 SWR same on 80 meters.
Now this is where things get a little unusual, we have noticed when it rains, the SWR drops to near nothing on both bands, yet once the weather dries out, the SWR goes back to what I mentioned. The antenna has performed well on 80/40 but nothing else, forget trying to use it on 17/20/15/10 without a tuner. You might have someone copy you on those bands by doing so, but once you bypass the tuner what you have is a non resonant high SWR antenna. I think this antenna would work much better if it were not subject to my tower, although the apex is at 70 feet and the antenna performs well on those bands there may be some interaction between the tower and antenna.
I have a pipe attached to the tower and on the end of the pipe is a pulley, this arrangement offsets the antenna from the tower by at least five feet. You might find in all fairness find that a wooden pole with the same arrangement as I have using a long pole to offset the antenna. Your results may be better if both legs were horizontal instead of a an inverted V configuration.
If you doubt this antenna you might want to consider one of dual band wire antennas from MFJ at a much cheaper price, but this antenna will probably last ten years and be done. The Buckmaster will still be in great shape after that time, depends on your wants and needs, price versus quality.
