I just wanted to give an update on my install.  <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

I originally had my Hybrid / V1 combo mounted to the side of
my house about 10' up.  As far as I could
go with the ladder I had at the time. 
SWR kind of stunk but I could tune up pretty quick with the tuner in the
Kenwood TS-2000.  Contacts were way better
than my Comet-250B but didn't seem to be what everyone here was getting.

I moved it from the side of the house to a metal pole about
6 feet from the house, grounded it to an 8' copper pole pounded in the ground
(It was effectively grounded twice) and used the radials. Noise was pretty low
and it seemed I could make even better contacts.  I even made it to the far side of Japan with
PSK31. Still not what I could see everyone else here was getting.  I just figured not bad for a beginner and let
it go.

Today though my nephew came over and we set up the
ladder.  I was going to mount everything
to the house again but this time with the Hybrid above the roof line. I
couldn't figure out how to deal with the radials though.  It's still what I want to do but I have no
idea how to set the radials up.

I ended up using the jaw mount and the tree in my back
yard.  :) 
The base of the Hybrid is now about 25' high and everything is about 20'
from the house.  I can spread out the
radials to just about the right angel using string to go from the ends of the
radials to the stakes in the ground.  There
is no grounding yet.  The nephew had to
leave and I didn't have enough wire to run something from the base of the
Hybrid to the ground rod.  

Where the signals I was receiving were good before they are phenomenal
now!! SWR is really nice and nearly all the signals I can see are S9 or better.
I was testing things with my power set to 5W and made several contacts from
Boulder Co to Argentina, Chili and Mexico. 
When I get everything all pinned down I expect to see even better.  I really would like to make a contact to the
UK and Germany. Once I do that I can die a happy man.  ;)

So two of the things I've heard people posting here are very
true.  Get it up high and get it in the
open.  Being where it is now is
nice.  You can't see it at all other than
the coax running from the house to the tree. 
It's still below roof level so I need to figure out a way to get it
higher but still by the tree and I need to figure out a more convenient way to
get to it if I want to change something. 
The best part is every year it will be a little higher growing with the
tree. ;)

Paul Davis aka KD0JOF