Very good observations Jeff.
I got an old 100' foot run of RG8x from a friend that had it attached to an A99. I put it on a new Starduster I got from another buddy without knowing the line had old water in it.
The A99 has a drain hole in the bottom, but that does not stop water from still going thru the PL259 into the feed line. This is why I now use "Stuf" from Cross Devices to help prevent water in my feed lines. See this product on www.Aesham.com
My Starduster antenna got very broad banded with a very low and flat SWR from 10-20 meters. The antenna had ears like a cat...and never had noise like all my neighbors often complained of. I use to tell them it was the nature of my SD'r, but I was wrong.
It just goes to show, that more often than not, we don't need a lot of power to work DX, because I never missed a contact that any of my neighbor's were able to make...even though I did make less of a signal and sometimes guys, far away, told me they could hear me, but I did not give them a signal.
Another buddy of mine told me he removed his coax from his radio because he saw his SWR change, and then he noticed water dripping form the line...so fresh or old water that does not evaporate or drip out can ill-effect your SWR results at certain times in your coax, so be aware.
The RG8x coax I had also used air impregnated foam dielectric, and that too can aggravate water type problems.
Jeff, did Jay ever suggest to you to use 50' feet of feed line or multiples...if you had any problem tuning the I-10K?
