"Ken" wrote in message
...
Do I need a dogbone or egg insulator at each end of my dipole, or can
I just splice the antenna wire to the nylon braid that runs to my trees?

Answer: maybe. The nylon braid is OK so long as it never gets wet and
absorbs water or if you let it thoroughly dry before transmitting.

I bought my XYL a high-$$$ all-band vertical and a tuner. It rained hard
one night. The next AM she noted that she had to retune to get the SWR
normal but she fired up her 100 watts and made several QSO's. Then she
barely heard an old friend signing off with another station so she turned on
her 'killer-watt' and called him. They'd barely got thru exchanging calls
and into the pleasantries when she noticed a smell ..... luckily only the
tubes were fried. She turned off the amp and saw that the SWR was out of
sight - until she returned the tuner to it's usual settings for that freq.
I was soon swinging from the trees installing dipoles for each band -- with
insulators!