A surprise contact

Last night I was tuning around the 40 metre band when I came across a station just signing off at the end of a QSO. The callsign sounded familiar- it was fellow blogger Adam M6RDP.
Adam and I had a pleasant contact and it was great the put a voice to the name. Lets hope it will be the first of many contacts. Perhaps we should introduce a "worked all bloggers" award!
I used my old TS830s and "random shortwire" for my contact with Adam. Whilst European stations and those farther afield are usually stronger on my inverted L  I have noticed that inter-G contacts are normally better on the horizontal wire. This shouldn't really be since the wire is quite low down, not resonant and literally thrown over the random shrubbery in the empty field behind my garden. Of course  the inverted L on 40 metres  is largely vertically polarised, which is better for the longer distance stuff.
I think it may be worth my while getting the random wire cut to a resonant length for 40 metres and trying to get it a little higher as it seems to be an effective inter G antenna.
I doubt I will have the chance for any antenna work this weekend however as the weather has already reverted to bank holiday mode-wet and windy!
HF conditions seem to have declined, it is some weeks since I have had a qso on 15 metres, there still seems to be fairly regular activity on 17 metres, over the last few evenings I have heard Stateside stations on PSK and a 4X4 on SSB.
I try to make a point at the moment of tuning across the 6 metre band and from time to time 10 metres in the hope detecting some sporadic E openings but so far I have not heard anything.

Pictured is the TS830S and MFJ tuner, note the frequency, at this time the 830 was doing duty as the PSK rig, now replaced in that mode by the TS450.