Jack, K8MA is located in Howell, MI, about 30 miles from my QTH and we had nice S9 signals when he swung his beam over on Mason. Here is a picture of his XYL on a recent Carribean vacation. There is certainly no problem with noise on this path!

With the addition to a good GAsFET preamp to my system, Jack's pictures are now essentially P5 even when his beam is pointed somewhere else!

K8MA and W8BYA typically have very close to a noise-free path, so Jack is an ideal relay for passing pictures between Ft. Wayne and Mason! Here is one of Gedas' pictures, courtesy of Jack.