hey gary...

thanks for the reply. i will indeed take it down tomorrow and clean the
electrical connections. my dad kept it pretty clean, though... it
looked really good when i got it. the coax cable is brand new so i don'
think that's the problem. i do have an swr meter, but i just can't
figure out how to use it. the instructions that came with it from radio
shack are pretty cryptic. it says for whips you need to clip off part
of it in 1/4 inch sections to tune it. how do you make adjustments to a
large 3-section antenna? thanks!