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Thanks for the quick response, Mike!

65 feet of coax between the radio (DX-402/ATS-505) and the antenna
(200 feet
of 300 ohm twin-lead hidden along the ridge on the roof of the
house.) And
I don't think I would call it "severely" degraded, only slightly so.
Only a
little less than the old "temporary" antenna (60 feet of four strand
copper
wire thrown over the house.) Also, the new antenna is oriented
primarily E/W
while the "temporary" antenna was oriented primarily N/S, if that
matters.

The orientation does matter if you're not using a vertical,
but the first thing that popped into my mind was overloading
the ATS-505 with 200 feet of antenna wire. The longest
I've ever run into my old DX-440/ATS-803A was about
40-50 feet, and while I never overloaded it, I've never
tried anything close to 200 feet into it.


But yeah, the E/W orientation will work well for stations
that are north or south of you (like tropical band stuff),
but not so good for hearing things east or west of you
(like from Europe or Africa or -depending on where
you're at- relays like Sackville).

Unless the antenna is a approx. 1/2 wavelength up or higher ( at tropical
band= 150' or so) the end nulls fill in making even horizontal antennas near
omni.

Guess my question is, how are you connecting the twin lead- if simply
connecting it to the balun, you have little more than a 300 Ohm transmission
line, not an antenna.
In fact, if the baluns were perfectly balanced, and the twin lead clear of
metallic objects ( which would unbalance it) you would theoretically get
zero signal.
Dale W4OP