I have had terrific experience with the SDG remote tuners. I use one for my 43 foot vertical. The beauty of using one of these is that you can also use all sorts of lengths of wire... 20 feet will work well for 20 meters and up. But you could also have a longer wire that you ran as an inverted L for 40-160 meters. With any vertial such as this the better your ground system the better the efficiency. I'd start with 2 elevated radials for whichever bands you plan to use.

Our local club is wonderful, and focused on bringing new people into the hobby.

With that said, VHF/Repeater operators may be more focused on maintaining long local friendships... whereas HF operators are inherently more interested in meeting new people from all over. I think you would have a very different experience on HF.

I lose about 10-degrees of my horizon to surrounding mountains... so I have the same sort of QTH challenge as you have, except that being in Colorado I have both worse soil and am further from most DX. But I've worked over 175 countries, all continents, etc.

My very best antenna is an 80 meter loop used on all bands except 160. Its only about 35 feet up but really works well for 20 and above and does just fine on 40 and 80. I also get very good performance from a 20 meter half square. I have vertical arrays on both 40 and 20 meters, but these don't often beat the loop. And I use a 3/8 wave length inverted U for 160, which can also act as a 3/4 wl on 80 meters... its a little new for me to asses properly, but it seems to work better than the inverted L I previously used on 160. Come winter I'll be able to tell if it is a better dx antenna on 80 than the Hustler 6BTV which has so far been my strongest 80 meter dx grabber. It works pretty well on 40 as well. I've also had good experience with the Buckmaster off center fed multi band antenna. So getting out over surrounding hills is more than possible... even without a tower and yagi.

One thing that I do find is that my low band DX performance seems much less influenced by my location than 20 and above. My understanding is that the lower the band the higher the angle of dx signals. So I would certainly recommend doing everything you can to be able to use 160, 80 and 40 meters.

The world will be a better place when we all participate in Logbook of the World (LOTW). After every contest I upload my log to the organizers and another copy to LOTW. Already about 50% of my contacts get confirmed on LOTW, and the percentage keeps increasing. Sure saves a lot of postage.

It seems to me that if you are using remote access to control a radio at your own home QTH there should be no issue. Say, for instance, you are travelling on business, but wish to participate in a weekend contest. All that does is facilitate more participation in the contest, which is to everyone's advantage.

I am not sure however that I like the idea of being able to charter a remote station in an exotic location for a DX contest. Let's say I could pay to use a remote station in North Korea for the CQWW contest. Might I not have a really unfair advantage? Or is it in everybody's interest to have North Korea on the air?.Should I open a business seting up a station for hire on some remote Pacific Island?

As we get more and more antenna restriction I do think that there is going to become a business in renting land in remote places to hams from which points they can set up "ideal" remote stations. Since I live in a valley and in a HOA community I'd love to have my station located on a nearby mountain top. Fair? I don't know.

But, in the end, I don't want radio to become just like sending e-mails over the internet. There is something cool about sitting at your radio directly sending out waves that can be recieved anywhere on the planet. Too much linking using the internet can lessen that thrill. Even if my signal get routed to a nearby mountaintop I'd feel like there was less of the true radio to radio connection.

And a really strange thought is the potential to have QSOs with yourself, in a contest or otherwise. If you operate a remote station in Bhutan can you contact yourself in Illinois?

Check out the TW Antennas TW2010 (also known as the Adventurer). Lots of reviews in the HF Portible Antenna section and available on E-Bay for great savings with package pricing.

The Force 12 Sigma 5 is similar, but less impressively built.

I also have had luck with the Cushcraft MA5V.

I own all three of these since I have always operated where I need small stealthy antennas.

All three of these function as vertical dipoles (ie no need for radials). Lots of people will tell you they "shouldn't" or "don't" work. But I managed to work Kazakistan, Japan , Peru and New Zealand last weekend with my TW2010.

You have a great many good options as long as you have access to a roof.

The easiest would be an Adventurer from TW antennas (also called the TW2010). Check out the reviews in the portable antenna category. These are sold very cheaply on E-Bay. They are fully able to be used as permanent antennas.

Another easy option is the Cushcraft MA5V, or the MA6V version which includes 6-meters.

I've made a great many DX contacts on each of these with no radials. They function as vertical dipoles.

Even cheaper, and giving you 80 and 40 meters in addition to 20-6 is the hustler 6BTV... this will require elevated radials to be at its best.

Finally a rotating dipole might be a decent option if you can get a 10-20 foot mast up.

If you were able to string wires out to other buildings that would also provide bunches of options.

But for instant gratification, the TW12010 or MA5V are hard to beat.

Are you setting up on a quiet frequency and calling CQ?

You can only get so many contacts "searching and pouncing". I ran the GOTA station for our club and with a brand new operator on Saturday night we ran 133 straight contacts on 10 meters calling CQ in about an hour and a half.

The beauty of calling CQ is that you are only calling those who can hear you. And the great majority of casual contesters tune around looking for CQs rather than running a frequency, so you greatly expand the number of people who you could connect with.

For field day most everyone is using wire or low antennas, and 100 watts, so your set-up should be pretty competitive. The Par antennas are terrific, and when set up as verticals do not need to be elevated much at all.

If you want simple, go with the par End-Fedz and a simple 31' fibreglass pole. A Par wire will perform just about exactly the same as a Sigma 40-XK (I have both), but the Sigma sure won't fit in a baggie.

The Jackite poles (cheaper and sturdier than the MFJ) are on EBay all the time.

I find next to nothing works better than a Par End-Fedz hoisted into a tree or with a 31 ft Jacklite pole.

A MP-1 is the quickest commercial non-wire vertical to tune as you move from band to band... the Buddistick is a project to tune, but works a bit better. The Ventenna is a good all around portable antenna package... easy to tune, and decent performance.

But given how cheap the Par antennas are I don't know why everyone doesn't use them any time they are running 100 watts or less. These outperform much higher priced verticals and wires.