On Sat, 10 Nov 2007 01:58:28 -0600, "Dave" wrote:

It's a 43 inch collapsable antenna (7 segments.) Maybe I just need more
amplification...

Hi Dave,

You need more antenna...
... but not much more.

When I was in Africa with a Radio Shack $40 SW receiver, the whip was
a dummy load that let me hear the internal microprocessor clock that
was driving the digital display. I attached 20 feet of wire-wrap wire
to the whip, threw the wire end (weighted with a Rand) up onto the
reed roof of the lodge I was in and I got more signals than I could
handle with only about 4 meters of height. The bands from 2.3 MHz to
16 MHz played all day/night long.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC