"Jack Painter" wrote in message
news:sg%Yc.119275$Lj.90194@fed1read03...

"Vito" wrote

"Ken" wrote
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!

Hi Vito, I don't see any connection between frying tubes on an amp from an
"all band vertical" with tuner settings that were not "it's usual settings
for that freq", and having no egg-type insulators on the ends of a
dipole -
did I miss something here?

I never installed the eggs on the lower antennas (fan type) of my dipole
(ran out of them at the time), and when it offered SWR of 1:1 performance
dry or in pouring rain, I just left the original copper wire to nylon line
tie-off alone. Been up for a year with no problems ever.

Jack


Uh, OK if you get away with it. But you do know that the highest currents
are at the ends of a dipole, right? Hence, you *could* set something afire!
No joy.

73