"Rockinghorse Winner" wrote

I have an indoor dipole cut for 20M that is 4:1 SWR at it's most resonant
part of the band. If I drop one leg to the ground, the swr drops to near
1:1, but the rf is everywhere, including the lcd display of the rig.

I run it with the high swr and a tuner, but the indoor location and hilly
country are not kind. Even so, I do get a weak signal onto the band.

Are the dangers to the coax cable independent of how well you match the
antenna/feedline to the rig?

Assuming you're running no more than 100w and your coax is RG58 or larger,
there is no danger to the coax at 4:1. (Actually, you shouldn't be running
even 100w when using an indoor antenna.) I would try a different
orientation for the antenna and get it further away from nearby objects. To
me, the fact that you've got no better than 4:1 in its, um, "current"
configuration, tells me something's wrong with either its placement, its
dimensions, or its construction. Is the coax hanging straight down from the
feedpoint? If not, that could be part of your problem.

Howard N7SO