Outdoor_Quest... while waiting for a reply on Wiley Coyote's question, a comment on what I used back in the late 70s...a simple two section mast about 40' high with a Shakespeare "Big Stick" 1/2 wave fiberglass antenna... regulated 12v power supply and an Cobra automobile transceiver (not "peaked" for maximum power)... good ground rod, and a 1:1 tune on the antenna... I was able to reliably talk to similar setups out to 10 miles (which at the time was the distance from most of the population centers in the area)...a little farther to ships in the Gulf....the single vertical antenna did not wind load very much,wasn't very noticable, and was a common setup along the coast...