ORIGINAL MESSAGE:

On Sat, 30 Sep 2006 17:39:16 -0400, Steve Reinhardt
wrote:

Mechanically, it would be easy to put together, but I hate to waste
the time if it's known to be a poor performer.

------------ REPLY FOLLOWS ------------

A vertical as you describe is a good transmitting antenna but is
somewhat more susceptible to picking up local man made noise than is a
horizontal dipole. Local noise such as from motors, arcing, etc,
starts out with all polarizations but the horizontal component is
quickly attenuated by travel over the earth's surface. The vertical
component is not, and therefore is received by a vertically polarized
antenna. Because vertically polarized signals are not attenuated when
using groundwave mode, AM broadcast stations use it exclusively, or
very nearly so. They also use enough power to overcome the noise
pickup issue.

If you live in a relatively quiet environment, you may not notice the
difference, and the vertical will have a very low angle of radiation,
good for DX, and will probably outperform the horizontal in that
respect.

The best of both worlds is to have both antennas available and be able
to switch between them as needed. Highly recommended.

Bill, W6WRT