the coax is dry inside, and everything is watertight,
a dummy load on the end has perfect SWR
if I have to replace the coax, it is beyond my budget...
I know the radio has issues, but they are verified with the SWR meter
and as a side track,
ever connected 2 or more SWR meters in a row ?
anyone that has just one SWR meter knows what is going on, but get 2 or more, and you know that you have no clue what is going on.
I ran out of money 2 years ago,
so either I make new coax our of scrap metal or I don't get it (no tubing here...)
not sure about the loss of making EMT tubing coax, pretty sure EMT tubing is in my price range, but would likely be better off making a green house with any that I managed to obtain
I could go with a 440 antenna only, I already have that, could also easily make a colinear array for one band
but 2M is what really gets out of the area I live in (and my friends are on 440)
annoyingly I only have one spot to put up an antenna
and the current one was selected to have the least wind load of anything as I can't push to hard on the building
any project is tradeoffs, and I don't have any money to trade off
I was pretty sure I knew what was going on before,
and I deeply appreciate the feedback from the outside world
now I am sure of my labor intense, yet no cost path to resolve my issue