Just put a Chez Procaster on the air to replace a 3 year old iA.M. Talking House with UTC. HUGE improvement. Excellent signal for about a mile--fringe at 1.5 and barely noticeable at 2.75 miles.
Even at .8 miles the signal was almost as strong as a 5KW about 7 miles away.
I have 32' of copper rods in the ground connected with #2 gauge copper wire (as big as I could get).
The iA.M. was only good for 1/2 mile at best with the same ground system. Still a little tweaking to do, but so far I'm very happy with it. Gerry, at Chez Radio, was extremely helpful and took the time to give me tips through the process.