Newbies and slow keys: suggest you try:
Appalachian Trail Amateur Radio Net on 7070 kHz at 7:00 PM.
https://sites.google.com/site/atamateurradionet/ and others.   
73, W3TTT

Suggestion: as soon as you have all the letters numbers and a few punctuation marks, try listing to Maryland Slow Net and the Appalachian Trail Amateur Radio Net on 7070 kHz at 7:00 PM.
https://sites.google.com/site/atamateurradionet/ and others.   
73, W3TTT

Not everyone is born with the same "code intelligence" just like not everyone has the same strength or intelligence.  Personally, I am very good in math, programming, but maybe not so good in CW code.  It doesn't matter if I listen all day, for months, I still will not be as goood as some.  Fact of life.  All those that say "just listen in your head..." and so on, don't get it.

BTW the CNN server is:
http://cw.dimebank.com:8080/
;

Thanks for the list.  I will try it tonight.
BTW the NAQRP is having a "sprint" tonight on 160.  Should be busy between 8:30-10:30 pm eastern, on 1805 to 1815

I have a Grundig G5.  Not quite a Yachtboy, but still very nice.  Has CW-SSB and a fine tuning -  three revolutions of the main tuning knob per kHz!  Cost about $59 very reasonable. 

Try a vertical.  Heck, cars have 80 meter hamsticks that are only five or ten feet.  You have thirty feet to work with.  Maybe you can add a whip to the top of the 30 feet to make 40 feet?  Anyway, a bit of inductance in the center of the vertical, and a good ground radial system and you will love it.  
Your idea of a horizontal dipole up 30 feet - good for local 80 meter contacts but not DX.  We call this a cloud warmer because most of your signal goes straight up.

80 meter vertical with raised radials.  The vertical part is just a wire into the tallest tree.  The radials stand over the ground attached to pvc pipes.  I have two radials.  Think of it as a dipole with one end going up and two other ends over ground.
I use a tuner and can tune up any band nicely.  The low angle of radiation is good for DX. 
Joe W3TTT
javascript:void(0);

Not that I am any better than anyone else, but,...
My eyes (and ears) were opened when I tried to send into my computer running cw recognition software... the dits and dahs and spaces need to be just right for the computer to recognize the letter.  Wow that was an eye opener.
After a few minutes, i was able to send to the computer and it "read" my sending.
It was funny when i started...what I sent was not what the computer heard!

73 joe w3ttt

What is your opinion on selling a rig that you still like but are not using?  I sold my first rigs, a heath hw-16 and even tho it was only a cw i am so sorry about selling.  It worked very nicely and I had many a good rag chew. 
Thanks
Joe w3ttt

 I was thinking about running a quarter wave antenna about 3 feet above the fence which brings height to about 10 feet.

That would be a start, but due to the way that the radiated signal mixes with the reflection off the earth, your signal from this very low antenna would be mostly straight up.  In ham talk, we call this a cloud warmer. 

For distance (DX) you want just the opposite - a signal that has most of the power radiated at a low angle , towards the horizon.  To get that, you need a dipole that is up about a half wavelenght, or at least a quarter wave length.  Something like that.

I have a wire going up into the tallest tree in my yard, about 60 feet up.  Makes a great 80 meter vertical.  Oh, and the good thing about vertical antennas, most of the power is aimed low, to the horizon, so it is good for DX.

Good advice to get an antenna book, or just Google "vertical antenna".  I use elevated radials, a whole nother topic.

73
Joe

I have a new Icom 718 feeding directly into an 80m vertical with raised radials. 
When I transmit on 80 meters, my dsl connection is knocked down. 
I saw a topic in this forum from December 2001 on this issue, and it said it was probably due to rf in the shack, and to do all the usuall (rf filters on all the wires into the router) which I will do.
But does anyone have any new information since 2001?
Thanks
Joe w3ttt

"...2) Radio amateurs who write the word 'ham' in all-capitals ( HAM ) as if it were an acronym, which it's not. "
Actually, if you read the early history of HAM radio, you will find that it really is an acronym.

I recently bought an ICOM 730 via ebay.  The rig works fine, but for one thing.
First let me mention that the cw receive filter IC-FL45  was removed before I bought it.  I thought that I was getting the filter with the rig.  Rig still works fine on CW and SSB.
Now the problem - AM transmit does not work. When I switch to AM and push to transmit, everything seems to be right, just no output.
Would this be related to the CW filter missing?
Thanks

I just worked the "high-fiver" net, contacting a few guys in Texas (from my shack in Maryland).  They said my signal was "weak".  To my horror, i realized that I had not reset the power control from when I was tuning up.  My "weak" signal was really just 10 watts out. So you will be fine for what you want to do.  I'm sure that there are plenty more stories like mine.
Joe n3iqa

Southerner: Where did you go to college?
Northerner: Yale.
Southerner: WHERE DID YOU GO TO COLLEGE!!!?
hihi
Here in Balmer (Baltimore) it is called "Meris Ceyode".
n3iqa