af5rn said:This is something I have actually been wondering about myself. I have wondered what HF range I could expect to work reasonably well with a quality, well ground-planed, 11 meter antenna, utilising an antenna tuner. Anybody else have experience with this?
Yes, I have. Not with an 11 meter antenna, but certainly with a ten meter antenna. If the auto tuner is properly installed, it works well. By "properly", i mean SHORT grounds and SHORT lead to the antenna base with no coax anywhere on the antenna side of the tuner. It's a high current point, and you must realize that the antenna actually starts at the last lumped element in the matching network.
To the OP... have you tried CW mobile yet? I set the keyer in the center console where the cup holders are, and copy in my head. The scratch pad records only call, name, and times. Everything else is recorded in wetware. I usually copy cw with my eyes closed, but I can't do that driving!