After lunch this afternoon I ventured into the cold and wind to check the status of my inverted vee. It's intact and undamaged, which is excellent news.
The SWR swings are due no doubt to the free-flying feedline, which continues to flap in the breeze after it broke loose from its tie point on my shack window frame. I'm not sure yet what happened, the overhead coax line to my 6-meter j-pole, which was suspended by a tie point on a security light pole on one end and my shack window frame on the other, broke loose from both ends.
I thought perhaps a tree limb fell and pulled it loose from both mounts. There's no debris to suggest such a scenario. I didn't stay outside long, but I'm not going to attempt to fix it until it warms up this weekend.
I've got the HW-16 warming up now, so I'll probably go back on 40 CW to work additional SKN contacts. Time's a-wasting.
UPDATE 3:30 P.M. – On air QSOs confirm the reason the SWR varying is the feedline flapping in the wind. When the winds are calm it stays steady. I'll leave it as-is until this weekend when warmer temps are anticipated.