Doc,

Coax to 80m Windom is now repaired (carefully spliced together) and
now entirely in conduit and water tight. Tomorrow I will bury it in
the ground, I learned my lesson about mowers.

At this point the skywire loop is a project in process. One mast is
up, four more to go. It will probably take most of the summer to
finish this antenna. I also have another antenna in the works, and
today I got a string at the local archery shop, if you get my
drift. This one, a 160OCF will be hoisted at one end to a rather
tall Eucalyptus (100' plus) and will span across a field about 270'
to another 40-50' mast. This antenna will have to be used in a
portable shack out in the field since it is too far from the house
to run a cable. As you can see I am at that point where I am a bit
obsessed with antenna farming. If all goes well I will give the 80m
Windom (OCF) a try this weekend and will report back with the
experience.

Meanwhile I am thinking ahead about radios and the Knwd 850 did
look like a good one, as you affirmed. I see that they had a
TS-850S and a TS-850SAT, the latter being the one with the built in
tuner. I was just wondering if the SAT was the one to shoot for or
if the model without the tuner was equally worthwhile to pursue.

Bill K6TAJ