It helped me a lot to remember that every antenna is, at its heart, a dipole. If your radials are above horizontal (less than 90 degrees to the vertical element), then you're adding capacitance and making it tune high. Since you're getting good SWR in that position, that suggests the antenna is too long. Your vertical element is likely fine, so I'd look at that 1CM. That's a lot on a gigahertz antenna. I don't know what is "correct" on your antenna design, but that's what this hobby is all about...experimenting. I'd try shortening the radials and seeing what happens.

As for radiation pattern, you'll get the most horizontal pattern with a true vertical dipole like you see on a lot of commercial masts. SWR is not efficiency; you can get good SWR on terrible antennas. With the elevated radials, it might tune but it will have lousy efficiency and a poor pattern. It's best to make it the shape you know it should be (radials around 30-60 degrees down from horizontal and adjust lengths from there. How bad is the SWR in that position right now?

This is amazing.

Hard to give a specific answer, but it's an extremely active club of close to 200 members. Several sub-groups, new members encouraged to take part in leadership, and we're in a very healthy area for ham radio. I think the big deal on FD is more a result of having a lot of activities the rest of the year. Historically, it's always been a huge day for us (before my time, they ran as a 23A once) I also run another group (not a club) that puts on a monthly field day open to all the clubs in the area, so a lot of locals are in the habit of doing portable HF already.

There's a real culture within the club that if someone wants a certain event, they just jump in and create it.

I'm coordinator this year for CVARC, and we'll be operating an 18A setup. I tell you, it's been a job for several months getting it together. With some luck I may get to actually use a radio during the event.

I was very relieved when I saw that thread lol...I've had several students and others asking for help with the system, and several were seemingly convinced that the problem was bad instructions from me. It's not a good situation, but everyone feels some sort of relief when they find out a problem isn't their fault, right?