I converted all my radios to Power Poles a dozen years ago.  It has made life much easier.  I have Rig Runner strips in the shack, car and on my portable battery pack.  I leave the OEM connectors in place.

The $10 plier-crimpers are adequate, but not ideal.  Power Werx has a rachet crimper that makes a perfect crimp every time, for around $50.  Cheapest way is find a buddy and borrow his.

The Anderson Power Poles do have draw backs.  They can slip apart (yes you can glue them or use roll pins), they do not have very good retention, they don't fully insulate the conductors, they don't provide good support for the conductors, they aren't very good for small conductors.  Still for general amateur use, in fixed indoors settings they are adequate.   They beat 2 pin Jones Plugs and cheap Molex connectors!

-Any gauge is fine from about 28AWG or upward, bare, enameled or insulated

-There is no optimum number of radials.  Impedance tends to stabilize from about 8 radials upwards.  My level of effort is around 36 radials, and no more than 64. 

-Fancy radial plates are just that..fancy and not required.  Attach the radials directly to the mount, or use a scrap piece of aluminum/stainless, or some copper plated plumbers' tape.  One magazine article suggested using a kitchen sink strainer.

-Remember, radials need to attach as close as practicable to the antenna feedpoint/mount.  Don't mount the antenna on a 5ft post and then run wire to the ground.  That would detune the antenna.  Equivalent to adding 5ft on to the tip.

Enjoy.  bill

Ah, the magical salt water ground plane.  Solves all problems, cures all ills, direct EM pipeline to all DX entities, better than any other arrangement.....

Except a decent copper radial field!  harumph.  Noting that a copper wire is several thousand times more conductive (and effective) than salt water.

There are other benefits to being close to water (any water) relating to near field and far field effects.  You get these from being within a couple hundred feet of the water and direct grounding is not required.

-Use whichever antenna strikes your fancy.  Both require radials.  The IR antenna will be harder to clean and may suffer long term corrosion.

-Water has a fairly shallow skin effect.  So don't put any grounding plates or radials more than a few feet deep.  Putting specific radial lengths in water is pointless.

Probably the most effective installation would be to set up over land, and use one or two tuned, elevated radials for each band.

Enjoy your expedition!  bill

Reminder:  radials need to attach as close as possible to the antenna base/feed point. 

-You can work contacts without radials.
-Any radials you add will improve performance
-Any length is better than none

-Radials close or in contact with the ground will be detuned so precise length/resonance is not critical
-Still radials about 1/4wl long at the lowest frequency would be great
-Personally, I think 8 radials are the level of effort I want to put into setting up a portable operation.  You may have different ideas.  This number should do a good job of providing a stable impedance and ground plane, in my opinion.

http://www.antennasbyn6lf.com/
Rudy N6LF has done some wonderful and easily readable work on vertical ground planes.  bill

One word:  Filters

Most CW ops will have at least one filter, typically 250khz, 300khz, or 500khz.

I'm a 500khz man, but for really crowded conditions even that isn't narrow enough.  It does come in handy for some digital ops as well.

There is no 'CW calling frequency", however some of the CW clubs have designated certain frequencies to assist their members.

If conditions are too crowded, spin the dial.  If the other op is too fast, ask him to QRS.  Don't be afraid  to send a slow CQ, as there are many considerate operators who will gladly change to meet your speed.  Still, it pays push yourself at times, and hang in a QSO even if you miss letters, since you can usually understand the gist, and it will improve your copy speed.

See you on the air!  bill

100ft of LM400 is reasonably low loss.

Owen has a transmission line loss calculator which is handy for planning
http://vk1od.net/calc/tl/tllc.php

The world wants one antenna to cover every frequency.  I did too when I was a novice.  But I proceeded to prove it impossible!  Every new ham must re-learn this lesson.  _

Martin,
You will probably not receive an answer to what results you observed. 

Common sense and experience tell me that you made a minor change to the antenna system, that had little effect. 

Why exactly?  Who knows.  Maybe your strap is too narrow, or you placed it too far inboard/outboard, or you didn't get a good connection, or maybe it was damp.  Get yourself an EE PhD and a laboratory.

Keep adding bonding straps and you will eventually see some trends.  Very little information can be derived from one data point.   

Conversely, if the one data point doesn't meet your expectations, perhaps your expectations/model is wrong! 

b.

I too have worked on airplanes.  You wouldn't start to replace a major panel on the airplane, install one rivet and take it flying to see how much the structural strength improved and expect to obtain meaningful data.  

Once you are confident of the transformer, I'm a 'Full Power" man.  I see little to be gained by fiddling at lower voltages.

If their is serious doubt about the capacitors they should be replaced.  If there is serious doubt about their condition and you aren't replacing them but fiddling with low voltages, they won't get better, and you are just playing Russian Roulette every time you turn the radio on.

The cost in time and money of replacing old capacitors is a lot less than having a tired one blow later down the road.

bill

Martin,
This is the sort of thing we tried to warn you about when you first proposed this 'one at time then measure' method.

You are making minor changes then trying to derive 'significant' results.

Technique and materials are going to have more effect on the result than the single strap.

When you have 8-10 bonding straps installed, then we can look at measurements and discuss the results.

very best, Bill

One el cheapo method for warming boards is a coffee mug warmer.  You can get them for about ten bucks at wally world or dollar stores!  Just set the board on top.

There are at least a dozen ways to accomplish SMD soldering at home, all equally effective.  You don't have to spend a fortune, and it can easily be done with ju st a soldering pen.  YouTube has many demos.

Many of the HVAC manufacturers produce units that have terrible RFI.  They chose to save money by not including any filtering.  If a new owner complains then they typically provide the filter kit at no cost.   

Call your installer and give them holy heck.

Here are some starting points....

http://amfone.net/Amforum/index.php
http://amfone.net/ECSound/
http://www.amwindow.org/index.htm
http://www.ami-west.com/

Gratuitous radio porn:
http://www.radioblvd.com/

http://snebulos.mit.edu/projects/reference/NASA-Generic/NASA-STD-8739-3-2.pdf

NASA soldering standards, 1997

And yes, liquid flux is allowed.

In  my experience the Nasa/military standard is 700F.

Liquid solder flux can make a big difference in ease and quality of soldering, particularly if you are doing rework on old components.

There are 'cheap' and even 'bad' solders out their.  I was given a kit to build which came with solder and so help me, I couldn't get it to stick for love nor money.  Radio Shack solder has always been at least decent, but I got a roll that had some punky rosin.  Ick.   Kester 44 is pretty much the gold standard for solder.

Keep your tip clean.  Have either a wet sponge or a brass scrubber beside your stand and use them regularly.  Wipe clean before going to the work, and put a little solder on before setting the iron down in the stand to keep it covered against oxidation.  

bill