Booty Monster, I took the matcher out of one of my A99's that was really acting badly. I found the coax shield and the center conductor were not tinned, and the solder joints for both to the coil were terrible jobs. The shield had those little wire hairs sticking out everywhere and I'm sure they were arcing and making plenty of RFI.
I fixed the solder joints, but I didn't attach it to any tubing, I used some extra wire I had, made it the same length as the antenna, and hung it in a tree. I put a 100 watts into it with the bottom hanging about 8' above the ground, and but for it being really low to the ground that virtually eliminated the RFI.
IMO, adding this matcher to a tuned replacement for the wire with much thicker tubing would be a mistake. I think part of the magic of this antenna design requires the characteristics that thin wire presents. I can't give you the words to explain why, but I believe this to be true.
Maybe Bob could help us understand better in this regard, if there's any truth to this idea.
BTW, I apologize to the creator of this thread for my contributions in Shanghaiing your thread.
