I have no trees, streelamps, telephone poles, or anything higher than a
7 foot trailer. That was why I was considering a vertical. For
practical purposes anything higher than 40 feet is forbidden and 25
foot is as high as I practically dare do.

You could use a mobile antenna on the trailer and have a decent
signal.

From what I understand,
dipoles are not effective below 1/2 wavelength above the dirt, but
verticals can work well fairly close to the dirt if they have to. From
what I hear inverted vees are slightly better than dipoles but slightly
worse than verticals at low altitude.

It all depends where you are talking. For NVIS, even a low antenna
will do ok. I've run quite a few low dipoles in portable use, and
never
had any problems. 1/2 wave up? If that were true, my dipoles here
at the house would be no good. They are only at 40 ft. Thats barely
more than a 1/4 wave up on 40m. 1/8 wave on 80m... I have no
trouble at all, and that includes dx. I can work dx on 80m with only
100w no problem.
In general, dipoles are better than inv vees at any altitude. At low
heights, you have less ground losses, and the antenna is higher
above ground in general. But, thats not to say an inv vee won't work
ok. It will. A flat dipole is best though, if perfection is desired.
Slightly less than low verticals? Who can say. It could be much
worse, or much better, depending on the quality of the vertical,
the band and path used, etc...In general when camping, I'd
rather run a low dipole, than a ground mount vertical with few
radials. Any vertical not ground mounted, I consider a ground plane,
and it must have resonant radials. Again, it could be better, worse,
or about the same... :/ Depends on band, path, etc.. The low dipole
would smoke the vertical on NVIS on 40/80, but the vertical
might win to long haul dx late at night if it's any good.


My wife really doesn't care about money as much as she cares about
waste. If I can make my setup working with the stuff I already bought
then great... At this point I am considering just throwing in the towel
and raising a 20 foot iron pipe to mount a 20 meter inverted vee...
sigh.

Probably what you should have done in the first place...:/ Would
work better than most anything else you will likely try. I would
have made my usual fanned paralleled dipoles fed with a single
coax if I could squeeze the room, and had a place to tie the ends
off. Sounds like you don't really....

20m is my favorite band, followed by 40 then 30.

Why not use the "no radial" verticals? IE: cushcraft R7, and others
of it's ilk? Those are good for what you are trying to do...
And they will usually work better than a vertical that needs
radials, but doesn't have all it needs due to a limited location.
Yes, you can use helical radials, radiator, but don't it expect it
to be a world beater. A simple dipole would probably eat it for lunch
and be cheaper and easier to build. I've used quicky dipoles portable,

no higher than my own height, and had no trouble talking. And that
was mainly on 75 and 40. One time I did that only running a yeasu
ft-7 with 10w output, and had no trouble. That was at Lake Amistad,
out in the psuedo desert. Not many trees where we were. I found a
tall 6-8 ft stick, and use that to support the dipole. The ends were
tied off to low bushes, or whatever.. Even with 10w, I was averaging
S9 or so to most people around the state. Not too bad. Would
have been 10-20 over 9 with 100w probably.
MK