It may well have worked for him. He has a different setup and a different length of feedline etc etc.
Mark has a good point to remember. What "works" for one ham may not "work" for another
if their situations, operating habits, or expectations are different.
This is especially true for common mode current problems, because the severity of the
problem depends on the length of feedline, what is connected to the station at the other
end, the operating frequency, and, in the case of interference, the sensitivity of the
other equipment to stray RF pickup.
For example, if his mast was 1/4 wavelength long (about 9 feet), it would provide a good
RF ground if it were
insulated from the ground at the base, but would be a poor ground
if the base were actually connected to ground. With a half wave mast (about 17') the
opposite is true. The same goes for the length of coax and what is connected to it at
the shack end: if that presents a high impedance, common mode currents will be small.
With a low impedance, they can be higher. This can change based on such things as
plugging in a set of headphones with the wrong length cord.
I also have to add that the number of years being a ham (or class of license) does not
necessarily imply a good understanding of technical issues. Unfortunately, many hams
get stuck in their ways as they age, and their misconceptions get solidified to where
they no longer search for the truth, and can't recognize or accept it if they happen to
bump into it by accident.
You can also see, on these forums as in other places, that often hams giving advice
assume that the other person is interested in the same aspects of the hobby. You'll
get different answers about 80m antennas from an active DXer or a rag chewer, for
example, because they have different needs for radiation patterns. That's not to say
that either is
wrong, but rather that you need to gauge how well their operating
style matches yours to tell which is more appropriate to your needs.
