"Joaquin Tall" wrote in message
. ..
Hello All,

Brisk winds blew through our area yesterday and, unfortunately, my 200'
G5RV's feedline touched ground overnight.

This morning I noticed that there were chew marks over 40' of the
ladderline; most went deep enough to expose the copper wire underneath. We
live in the country...

I called the manufacturer; they told me that "splicing/soldering" in a 40'
length of 300 ohm line to replace the chewed up line would upset the SWR
and almost make the antenna useless. It's the solder joints [no matter how
small] that would mess things up.

I used some silicone calk to cover the bite marks; ever try to smooth out
calk on twinlead!?

Do I need to remove/replace the feedpoint and the 40' of the twinlead, in
other words make most of the antenna over again?

Any options to make the antenna whole again, the above draconian measure
notwithstanding?

Many thanks for taking the time to repond!

Alain

its the impedance, not the solder joints, that would mess things up. if you
got a piece of the same impedance ladder line you could spice it just fine.
but as long as the bite marks don't break the wire then adding a bit of
caulk is as good as anything else to fix it for now.