Never underestimate the power of a $20 Ham stick. If you want long distance communications, a large antenna array is nice but if you want long distance communications on a budget, you might consider a mobile vertical. My experience: I put a ICOM IC718 with an LDG auto-tuner in my SUV and ran one coax line to the back. I mounted an 80 meter, 40 meter, and 10 meter Ham stick to one mount and attached all three antennas to it. I could talk to any station that I could hear except on 60 meters. When the SUV got old and feeble, I removed all the radio gear and attached the 80 meter Ham Stick to a 7 Foot pipe and attached it 40 feet up the side of my tower. I did the same thing with my 10 meter Ham Stick. The 80 meter works better on 80 meters than my 160 meter wire dipole in most cases. Unless the band is stone cold dead, I talk to a fellow name Dave in England everyday on it. If he goes to 40 meters, I have to shift over to the 160 Meter Dipole. I'm tempted to do the same thing with my left over 40 meter Ham Stick. The only reason I haven't already done it is that I have a Bug Out communications bag with a whole Ham station in it with coax and wire for antennas. I also planned to carry the 40 meter Ham Stick because 40 meters is one of the most usable ham bands(24 hours a day). $20 for a Ham Stick is a small investment and the reward could be huge.
