As you move along the wire the impedance changes. Moving the feedpoint
to some other location could result your 9:1 balun being less efficient
(mismatched). There are antennas which use a feedline connected to some
point along the wire instead of the end but you have to make the
connection at a specifc location, not just anywhere. The 'Windom' is one
of these types. The following website shows the design of a basic Windom
antenna. Note that the balun is 4:1 instead of your 9:1 for the end fed
wire. This is because the impedance at the connection point for a Windom
is lower than the end of a random wire or inverted-L.

http://www.packetradio.com/windom.htm


Thanks for the info. After doing research on the Windom antenna I gathered
it was going to be a little more involved than I expected, and I'm not sure
if it will be as effective for receiving. I'm leaning towards sticking with
the random wire and just getting more coax to reach the feed point instead
of bringing the lead-in closer.

-Brian