Thanks for all the replys guys.

Just to set the record straight, I have been a ham for
over fifty years, and a very active member of
the local ham club for over 30 (since I moved to Calgary).
I hold an advanced ticket and am not
totally ignorant on matters re antennas. I am a darned
good tech (most of my gear was bought broken and I
fixed it up), but sometimes I need simple answers
to a few questions -- and this is the place for that!

BUT! -- for the past four years I have been in and
out of the hospital and off and on some pretty mind bending
medications -- consequently sometimes I cannot think as straight
as when I was younger, nor do I move around well. I'm not
yet demented but do admit to being crazy but not dangerous!

I am somewhat handicapped, and live in a senior's
residence. I cannot have an outside antenna other
than what I can fit on a small (6'x9' balcony. I can have a whip
sticking over the side, but I still need to remain relatively invisible
(all I tell the other residents is that it is for
listening to shortwave lest I be blamed for non-functioning
TV remote controls, cordless phones with low batteries, and the like).

I plan to build a magnetic loop this summer, but winter hangs around
here until about the end of May! In the meantime I am trying to figure
what I can do to operate from within the confines of my studio
suite -- once the loop is built I can put it on the balcony and tune it
remotely from inside. I intend to operate QRP using an FT-817ND.
Once I find I can operate undetected, I also have an FT-857 and may
go to a few more watts.

Insofar as radials are concerned, they will be laid around the base
of the antenna, mainly for the purpose of getting the best match
possible for the MP-1 vertical antenna, or any other things I may
try in the future. I've had a number of suggestions to use hamsticks
in a dipole configuration (won't fit on the balcony and makes
band changing difficult), baluns (not required with the whip or a
magnetic loop), higher power to overcome antenna inefficiency, and
how easy it is to learn to use a Smith Chart, and even move. I'm
where I plan to stay (I get great medical care here, and the
nurses are cute -- when I leave, they'll have to carry me out. So,
as I've said before, it's a case of 'RADIATE OR DIE TRYING!'.

Suggestions that I go to higher power, buy a screwdriver antenna, and
hints about baluns, don't help -- I've got to make do with what I
have on hand, and I will do it. My main question asking whether there
is a relationship between antenna efficiency and received signal
strength (will a more efficient antenna result in a higher S-meter
indication?) is all I really wanted to ask. The radial matter was
simply a possible way to increase the efficiency (by reducing ground
losses). Power-wise is not a problem for me -- it's not a matter of
contact quantity but quality. It's sort of like fly-fishing versus
the dynamite fishing lure. If I get one good QSO a day, I'll be
happy.

I have trouble moving around physically so that's why I'm so slow
in collecting the materials I need, and getting something going, but I
want to do it slowly, but surely. I have a couple of ham chums
who will help me as needed.

I just got enough wire to make some radials for 20M, so I'll cut and
throw them around the base of the MP-1 and see what I can do.
Eventually I'd like to work 80 thru 10M but that's for later.

Thanks for your replies and suggestions, many of which have been
helpful, but bear with me -- I'm getting there slowly, and with
a little luck the end is in sight! It's just that I can't do anything
very quickly, but with time I'll do it all!

73

Irv VE6BP