I've been on vacation

I've been away. I didn't do much. I note that I heard many more stations in Nevada with an Icom R-71a in the 15 MHz and 17MHz broadcast bands than in Chicago. It probably proves that the old tube Hallicrafters S-40A needs work on stage 4, 15-40MHz. I heard Radio Netherlands on multiple frequencies, and it was neat to note one of the stations was 1/4 second behind the others. Steven and I have decided that proves it has 1 satellite hop extra to that relay station than the others. (Geosynchronous orbit is 23,000miles, roughly 1/8 light-second away). I bet stringing a simple wire out to the west edge of the roof (past the skylight) would give us a great signal and some immunity to the elevator noise. The current antennas, save for the magnetic one, aren't shielded and pick up noise (and signals too) from the coax braids, since they aren't correctly balanced.