I went out for my first shot of HF operating today had had some success as well as learning a couple of lessons.
The set up was at a local lookout – it has a slight elevation compared to town, it’s out of the 
noise (nearest power-line is about 400m away) and partially surrounded by the salt lake that the town is named for. The lookout has an iron railing that is perfect for strapping my 7m squid pole to. The plan was to hook 20m of wire from that down to the back of the ute and run it as an end-fed.
Lesson 1 – there is only so much tension that can be placed on a squid pole before it snaps.