The antenna finally worked on Sulzspitze. I guessed the fix.

Third summit in three days. The first two gave me one contact and two contacts. This one gave me seven and I still can't tell you why. I changed one thing on purpose that morning. I read a thread on the SOTA Reflector the night before, and instead of letting the end-fed lie low I put the 49:1 transformer up on a trekking pole and hung the far end off a 5 metre fishing rod, so the wire ran as a sloper with the counterpoise off the ground. It worked. Seven contacts, including one summit to summit, and the first activation of the trip. But other things were different too. The band conditions, the time of day. I measured nothing. There was no way to check any of it on the summit. So if you run an end-fed as a sloper: is the pole height the thing, or did I just get a good afternoon? The forum says 7 metres. I had 5. I honestly don't know whether that mattered, and I'd rather ask than pretend. SULZSPITZE OE/TI-435 2084 m · 8 points · Tannheimer Tal, Austria · operating as OE/HF2LT/P Result: 7 QSO, 1 S2S - activated Band / mode: 20m Log and full activation history: https://sotl.as/summits/OE/TI-435 RADIO Yaesu FT-857D End-fed half-wave, 49:1 transformer, choke balun 5 m fishing rod + trekking pole LiFePO4 9 Ah Handhelds and PMR for the family We're a family that carries a radio up mountains. Four kids, one licence between us so far, and a lot of arguments about who gets to hold the log. Instagram: @fota_sota QRZ: HF2LT familyontheair@gmail.com #SOTA #SummitsOnTheAir #HamRadio #AmateurRadio #POTA #Sulzspitze #TannheimerTal #Austria #QRP #EndFed #FT857D #HF2LT