jawod wrote:
I was listening to 40M the other night and a reasonably clear SSB signal
came from a guy in Pennsylvania using 100 W to a rain gutter.

It was apparently raining at the time in PA.

All the mathematical modeling and tweaking discussed in this group ...
I thought the successful use of a rain gutter deserved some praise here.

Why? There's nothing unusual or exceptional about it.

I used one successfully on 80 meters for a number of years from an
apartment in Denver. And when I was a kid my main 20 meter antenna was
an approximately half wavelength of #28 enamled wire slammed in my
window and running to a clothesline pole in the back yard. Insulator was
a plastic curtain ring. Worked lots of stateside stations from Alaska
with a homebrew 6L6 rig -- probably about 10 watts output.

I've worked JA on 40 meter CW with a base loaded CB whip from a VW
squareback and about 8 watts, and Alaska from Denver (good signal report
on SSB) with 50 watts using a dipole strung around a basement. I worked
New Hebrides on 40 meters with a bent attic dipole 16 feet above ground,
(#28 hookup wire stapled to the eave) and running 1.5 watts. Solid copy,
and I got a QSL. A rain gutter probably would have done better.

Anyone who's been a ham for a few years probably has a handful of
similar stories. What conclusions should we draw from them?

Roy Lewallen, W7EL