An old friend returns home

After several years with no rig at home, except 2m and 70cm fm boxes, I recently found the old Drake 2B with the 2BQ Q-multiplier that had been stored away some ten years.

As there was no variac available I took a chance, switched it on and stepped backwards prepared to pull the plug if something nasty would happen. It didn't. Tuned on 80m, with a few meters of wire as an antenna, sweet music came out the speaker. CW that is. But all signals were rather raw and hummy. Electrolytics four decades old need to be replaced.

Negotiations with the landlord, who for some strange reason can't see the beauty in wires all around the place, resulted in permission to try a small, and preferably invisible, antenna. A 21m long wire was put up some four meters above ground and will do as a first compromise. There is a tall oak tree about 40 meters from the chimney of my house and you bet I'm planning how to get a wire up there.

Then, there is something missing