The antenna shouldn't touch the tree regardless of it being bare or covered.
Douglas Kimpel Chief Engineer KKHT, KNTH Houston, Texas 713-206-2146 Cell 713-260-6129 Office ________________________________ From: BVARC <bvarc-boun...@bvarc.org> on behalf of terry leatherland via BVARC <bvarc@bvarc.org> Sent: Thursday, April 22, 2021 11:11 AM To: BRAZOS VALLEY AMATEUR RADIO CLUB <bvarc@bvarc.org> Cc: terry leatherland <k5...@yahoo.com> Subject: [BVARC] naked wire dipole - swr from tree bark? TO: Rick W5RH. Since you are the antenna guru, I have a question that might be of interest to all. As you know , I spent some time this past year perfecting some HOA stealth antennas in the back of my house in the creek/levi zone. Both are wires. One is a B&W Folded ALL band dipole that has very old stainless steel naked wire I pieced back to together (prototype). It was working great with 1.5 swr across the spectrum on all bands. However now that Spring is here, the trees have managed to encroach on the gap I had it running thru for 1/2 of one leg. I noticed this weekend and last night on the 80M net that SWR has jumped up to 3'ish. Question: does bark touching naked dipole wires create a grounding effect? If yes, then I think I will re-wire it with insulated wire. If no, then I need to look elsewhere. Any words of wisdom other than to cut the small branches in the gap that is encroaching? Except that they are 20-25 ft up and I need to make an extension on my pole limb snipper. Thats probably the easiest 1st step. :-) Terry Terry Leatherland, K5PGF 281-455-8090 Sugar Land, Tx
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