TO: Rick W5RH. Since you are the antenna guru, I have a question that might be of interest to all. As you know , I spent some time this past year perfecting some HOA stealth antennas in the back of my house in the creek/levi zone.Both are wires. One is a B&W Folded ALL band dipole that has very old stainless steel naked wire I pieced back to together (prototype).It was working great with 1.5 swr across the spectrum on all bands. However now that Spring is here, the trees have managed to encroach on the gap I had it running thru for 1/2 of one leg.I noticed this weekend and last night on the 80M net that SWR has jumped up to 3'ish. Question: does bark touching naked dipole wires create a grounding effect? If yes, then I think I will re-wire it with insulated wire. If no, then I need to look elsewhere. Any words of wisdom other than to cut the small branches in the gap that is encroaching? Except that they are 20-25 ft up and I need to make an extension on my pole limb snipper. Thats probably the easiest 1st step. :-) Terry Terry Leatherland, K5PGF281-455-8090Sugar Land, Tx
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