Yes, you all pretty much confirmed my suspicions. I may try to set up
a dipole low to the ground NVIS style, but I know it's probably a
waste of time. I have a great time experimenting with shortwave
antennas (although my neighbors are going crazy wondering what I'm
doing) and haven't had much luck on 10 meters there, either.

My friend's setup is doing incredible things with 20 meters, but
they're all 1200+ miles away too.

I have a beautiful old Kenwood HF rig that I'm preparing to set up
now. Guess I had better start thinking about lower frequency
antennas.

Thanks for the advice, it is much appreciated!

On Sep 15, 12:38 pm, Cecil Moore wrote:
Dave Oldridge wrote:
You will not get a consistent path on 10m of 300 miles without some
pretty expensive antenna hardware and high power. Just cannot be done.

How about moon bounce? :-)

You'd actually get off cheaper trying to do it on 2m SSB (which would
probably work OK if you stacked two yagis one over the other and fed them
with a good amp).

Which reminds me of something that nobody seems to
have mentioned. If a QSO is the only goal, satellite
communications should work well if not too crowded.
--
73, Cecil http://www.w5dxp.com