"Sal M. Onella" wrote in
:

I grabbed a three-foot piece of meter lead with alligator clips on
both
ends. I also grabbed a hank of TV coax and went out to the antenna
(in the dark with a flashlight), intending to stretch out the coax and
clip it to the end of the lower element of the dipole. I nearly
tripped over a retracted aluminum extension ladder laying on the
ground. Ah, fate! I immediately clip-lead-connected the ladder to the
bottom of the lower element of the dipole and went back inside, taking
the unused RG-59 with me.

This time, the tuner had no trouble getting a very low SWR. I
tuned
around and heard a guy. I called him and he came right back. From
Hawaii. He said I had a solid signal, although I'm sure his
five-element beam was doing much of the work.

I've heard stories about unusual antennas, including the one about
"loading up the bedsprings" but I believe a ladder laying on the
ground as part of an antenna is a novelty.

I tried 40 meters and got a good match. I could hear people but
nobody came back when I called. Maybe I needed to stretch out the
ladder.

You have to be sure you feed it with ladder line, Sal! ;^)

- 73 de Mike KB3EIA -