OK gentlemen, having stared at the ouija board all weekend, here is what I conclude with regard to shielding. Its sole purpose is to prevent unwanted crud from finding its way into either a signal or signal return (gnd) wire. A shield is of no use at all unless it is connected to the ground buss or better yet, the bat - terminal. To be most effective, a shield should be connected to gnd at only ONE end, period. Grounding a shield at both ends simply complicates matters by introducing the possibility of a ground loop.

Some of you will probably try to come up with exceptions to this radical concept...

Angier Ames
N4ZQ
N3ZQ

ps...my WX500 and MX20 are now happily humming away on the bench and detecting lightning strikes out to 250+ miles.