Steve et all,

Your signal went up greatly when we moved the car basically 90 degrees, even though the hamstick should have been in a favorable direction to you.  Kathy and I did an experiment one time to determine if vehicle orientation made any difference to signal strength.  Since it was only anecdotally determine without the benefit of a calibrated range we found that vehicle orientation did not seem to make much difference.  Have found that being near tractor trailers seems to effect the swr, however. 

Still have not been able to figure out why the swr went to infinity yesterday.  Checked all connections and ran some tests and everything was fine.  Today swr never went over 3:1, usually down around 2:1.  Told the xyl that maybe the antenna over heated, hi hi.  She said at 80 mph with a 20 mph cross wind the antenna should have been air cooled. 

73
Dick - KC3EF