Had this antenna a month the first thing is taking my time with the RF bit it took me 8 hours to do properly. Do not cut the ladder line to 10 inches it will be too short get it to near the right length and move one of the elements closer so it's easier to solder. Drill a hole in the cap to feed the 2 bits of coax through seal all the holes with liquid insulating sealant . As for the directors go on YouTube to get the right way to place them had the wrong advice from Moonraker they don't go in descending order and are not marked. Mine come with out the mounting bracket got one after about 10 days. The vswr out of the box on the ssb bit of the band is 1.0.1 no tuneing. I can hear 3 CW beacons with it but I think it's too heavy for their 26 foot telescopic metal mast mine was bending a bit with the top section only extended to hold the clamp .The performance seems similar to a diamond 5 ele beam and that's half the weight. I think the zl would be good mounted on a roof as it's strong and would take any weather ect the diamond wouldn't. Overall the zl is a good antenna if a bit heavy . I'm going to try a 10 ele diamond which as far as I can tell is half the weight for temporary set up. M7FOD.