Bruce in alaska wrote:

If your paying someone to look at you stuff, and he brings anything
aboard to check the VHF Antennas other than a Bird Wattmeter with the
appropriate Slugs, kick them off your boat as if they had Homeric Fever,
because they are Dufus's and will only cost you money. /snip/

If you Google "VHF", sure enough you find entries about Viral
Hemorrhagic Fevers (VHFs) like Ebola, Dengue and Marburg. :-)

Bird Wattmeters are a trusted article no doubt.
If you come up against a strangely absorptive coax, it might just stay
absorptive on the Bird, even with the load disconnected. That should
provide a clue.

Brian W